Broadly speaking, Portland, Maine is often considered “the other Portland,” mainly because the one in Oregon is a larger city.  Around these parts if you consider this one to be “the other one,” then you’re from away, and if you’re from here you wouldn’t even consider calling it that. {This could just be the hometown pride talking.} Part of me doesn’t mind that our city here is less well-known because that means we can keep it to ourselves.

However, in 2011 Travel & Leisure did a “City Face-Off” of the Portlands as part of their “America’s Favorite Cities” series and Portland, Maine won over Portland, Oregon. Interestingly, as Wikipedia would have us know~ “Portland, Oregon was named for Portland, Maine.” Turns out a native Portlander {of the East Coast variety} was one of the founders of the Oregon Portland. A fun fact that I did not know.

Elvis Costello gets this same “other” status because let’s face it, when you’re The King of Rock-n-Roll you’re a hard act to follow. Presley, while I do like some of his music, has just never stuck with me. I’ve always liked Elvis Costello and if I ever find a t-shirt that reads “I love the other Elvis” I’m buying it.

All of this “other one” business is all relative anyway because some might agree that the positives of being somewhat of a little secret outweigh the negatives.