the Puget Sound

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 11/14/2002 4:30:35 PM Eastern Standard Time,
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:

> What
>  I'm wondering is if anyone has tried using "The Puget Sound" for
>  Seattle-style music (neo-grunge?).

I did circa 1982, but unfortunately only in an "apa" (a pre-electronic
"mailing list") so only about a dozen people saw it.  The inspiration was
reading about a strict noise ordnance [sic] in Seattle, so strict that "no
self-respoecting rock band could accept it".  So I postualated a "soft rock"
group called "the Puget Sound".  My contribution was part of a running gag
that started when someone wrote about "Sidney the Weretrain" ("were" as in
"werewolf") which inspired such comebacks (not from me) as "Am-trak",
"has-been sleeping car", and "ought-to-have-been diner".  There was also a
gag about how a certain Old Testament translator from "the" Puget Sound area
was so sly that he became known as the "Everett Fox".

Seriously, Albemarle Sound, Pamlico Sound, Block Island Sound, and any others
I can think of do NOT take "the".  In Puget Sound you have "Hood's Canal" (no
definite article" but "the Tacoma Narrows".  The bridge crossing that last
body of water is officially "the Tacoma Narrows Bridge" but unofficially
"Galloping Gertie number 2".  Similarly "the Mississippi River" but "Old Man
River."

a short catalog of bodies of water

takes the definite article when used as nouns
    rivers
    seas, including "the Tappan Zee" (in "the" Hudson River)
    oceans
    narrows (as in "the Verrazona Narrows", known to New Yorkers as "the
Narrows")
    deltas
    currents (the Gulf Stream)
    gulfs
    straits

do not take the definite article)
     lakes (including Great Salt Lake, at least for me)
     lochs
     sounds
     harbors
     creeks
     runs (Virginia term for a small river, e.g. "Bull Run")
     waterfalls
     falls (Baltimore sense of a stream filled with rapids, as "Jones Falls"
in downtown Baltimore)
    cataracts (except for the First etc. Cataract on the Nile)
    bayous
    springs
    sinks (at least not Humboldt Sink in Nevada)
    sloughs
    fiords

sometimes yes sometimes no
    Hood's Canal versus the Erie Canal
    Jamaica Bay versus the Bay of Bengal (perhaps the "of" makes the
difference)

           - Jim Landau (probably all wet)