sky vs. skies (long post)

[Mark A Mandel]

On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, David Bergdahl wrote:

#I think as far as weather goes, "skies" recognizes that everyone has his own
#patch of sky and the sky may be cloudy for you but clear for me,

So much for -- Irving Berlin, is it?
        Blue skies, smiling for me,
        Nothing but blue skies do I see.

I'm more inclined to see this as a poetic/metaphorical use.

#                whereas
#when "patrol the sky" considers the [non-count rather than singular] sky as
#a unity and the patrol goes everywhere.  So in "Fly the friendly skies" one
#understands that United is flying all over the globe, and hence in different
#skies, while in "The sky over Dallas is hazy" the perspective is limited to
#one patch.

Hmm. The skies themselves are not friendly. Does "metaphor" cover this
one too?

-- Mark A. Mandel, Ph.D., d/b/a Dr. Whom
   editing, proofreading, and linguistic consultation