The Wrong Portland

[Zip codes starting with “9” instead of “0” should have a real clue.] If not for the whims of a penny, there would be a Boston, Oregon, to go along with Boston, Massachusetts. Instead, Oregon’s largest city is named Portland, after Francis Pettygrove’s hometown of Portland, Maine. A couple centuries later, that fact resulted in ads about Maine’s Senate race being incorrectly shown to hundreds of thousands of Oregon residents, who were no doubt bemused and/or amused.Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/12/us/politics/maine-troy-jackson-ad-portland-oregon.html?unlocked_article_code=1.I1E.okT5.eGL9h4avGNuI&smid=url-share