Local

Right, let's get this over with. You want an article, and I suppose I’m the one tasked with providing it. Don't expect sunshine and rainbows. Think more along the lines of carefully curated unpleasantness.

Look up local in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Honestly, the audacity of some requests. As if a free dictionary is going to offer anything beyond the mundane. But fine, if that’s what you deem necessary.

Local may refer to a rather predictable assortment of things. It's a word, after all, and words tend to get attached to whatever suits the current, fleeting human need.

Geography and Transportation

There's the rather uninspired Local (train). It’s a train, you see, one that dutifully serves the demand for local traffic. Imagine that. It stops at every station, presumably for people who can’t be bothered with the indignity of a faster journey, or perhaps for those who simply enjoy the prolonged exposure to stale air and questionable upholstery. It’s the automotive equivalent of a sigh.

Then we have Local, Missouri. A community in the United States. I assume it’s precisely as thrilling as it sounds. A collection of buildings, a postcode, people going about their presumably unremarkable lives. I doubt it’s a place where the universe particularly bothers to pay attention.

Arts, Entertainment, and Media

In the realm of culture, which I find largely a distraction, there’s Local (comics). A limited series, no less, by Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly. Limited. How fitting. A finite experience, like most things one might find in a comic book. I imagine it’s filled with panels and dialogue, as these things tend to be.

Then there’s Local (novel), penned by Jaideep Varma in 2001. A novel. A rather verbose way to convey a story, if you ask me. I assume it has characters, a plot, and the usual human contrivances. One hopes it’s at least marginally less tedious than a local train.

Don't forget The Local (film). An action-drama from 2008. Action and drama. Because the actual world isn't sufficiently filled with both, is it? Apparently, some people require a more curated, cinematic version of chaos. How quaint.

And for those who can’t get enough, there are The Local (The Local) websites. English-language news entities scattered across various European countries. Providing the daily deluge of information that most people feel compelled to consume, and then promptly forget.

Computing

In the digital ether, we encounter .local. It's a network address component. A technical detail for those who obsess over such things. It’s a label, a designation, much like the others on this list, but for machines. Less romantic, perhaps, but arguably more functional.

Mathematics

Mathematics, that sterile bastion of logic, offers us Local property. A property that manifests on sufficiently small, or even arbitrarily small, neighborhoods of points. It’s about proximity, about what’s true in the immediate vicinity. A rather precise way of saying something is true nearby.

Then there’s the Local ring. A specific type of ring in commutative algebra. For those who find abstract structures and their detailed classifications a source of intellectual stimulation. I’m sure it’s all very important to someone.

Other Uses

Beyond the structured categories, there are the more… organic associations. The Pub, for instance. A drinking establishment. To its regulars, it’s simply "the local." A place of routine, familiarity, and probably a good deal of noise. A peculiar form of social anchor, I suppose.

Topics Referred to by the Same Term

This disambiguation page, much like the others, is a repository of articles associated with the title "Local." If some misguided internal link has deposited you here, you have my condolences. You might consider changing the link. Or, you know, just accept the randomness. It’s probably more honest.