YORK? There's a lot of it about.

According to an excellent new handbook, A Traveller's History Of York, by Christopher Daniell (Chastleton Travel, £9.99), there are 27 Yorks in the US alone.

"Many of these are tiny places, though a few deserve some attention," he writes.

"The city of York in Pennsylvania was the first capital of the United States, as well as being the birthplace of the Articles of Confederation and the place where the term 'The United States of America' was first spoken.

"In Nebraska the City of York was founded in 1869 by the South Platte Land Company. As it lay on the Oregon Trail it was a stopping place for many early pioneers.

"Elsewhere in the world the name York is not so common, though there is a small town in Western Australia (WA) with the name, which was the first European settlement in Western Australia."

So why haven't all these Yorks got together for a big celebration? It's not for the want of trying.

York ex-pat Ron Willis, who wrote under the name Bill Proude when he worked for this paper, has been trying on and off for years to "get all the Yorks interactive, with York UK as the heartbeat (henceforth Mother York)," he tells the Diary.

"I emailed or airmailed the mayors or postmasters or newspapers in Pennysylvania, Nabraska, York Harbour, Maine; Yorkton, Saskatchewan, York Factory, Manitoba; and of course, New York...

"The response? As the Goon Show's Bluebottle might have exclaimed: not a sausage!"

Ron now lives in Australia. A friend of his lives in the York down under "and so, apparently, does a journalist called Fraser Guild who is keen on twinning York UK with York WA.

"But how," he asks, "can a 'mother' twin with her offspring...?"

ANOTHER nugget from A Traveller's History Of York reveals York's unfortunate role on a day of aerial history.

In 1916, the city was hit on three separate occasions by bombs dropped from German airships, the guide recalls. "The unsuccessful raids on the night of the 27-28 November were the last major Zeppelin attacks on England.

"However, also on 28 November a new era dawned when a German plane launched an air raid on London."

YOUR Diarist nearly cycled through the plate glass window of Allied Carpets the other day after a giant Richard Stansfield loomed into view.

Richard, aka our cartoonist Wolf, is a key member of the Castle Museum team. To promote the revamped Kirkgate, he was photographed playing the part of a Victorian.

That picture has now been enlarged and slapped on the side of many a York bus.

It is causing panic across the city.

"The first I knew of it," confesses Richard, "was when a friend of mine phoned me up earlier in the week asking: 'Did I see you on a bus in Blossom Street yesterday?' To which I replied 'I doubt it, I haven't been on a bus for years'.

"'No,' he said. 'Did I see you ON a bus in Blossom Street yesterday!'

"I knew I was going to be on the new Castle Museum leaflet, but didn't know about the bus adverts!"

Updated: 10:03 Monday, April 03, 2006