[Ads-l] "The 91"

[Jim Parish]

Thanks! I'm glad to hear that Powers didn't slip up on this one.

Jim Parish


On 3/26/2018 8:49 AM, Peter Reitan wrote:
> A few Nevada newspapers in the 40s/50s refer to "the US 91" or "the US highway 91."
> ________________________________
> From: Jim Parish<mailto:jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Sent: ‎3/‎25/‎2018 15:37
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Subject: "The 91"
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
> Subject:      "The 91"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm currently rereading Tim Powers' novel _Last Call_, and was just
> struck by something. Powers specializes in fantasy of the "secret
> history" type, so the following is set in (what purports to be) our
> world and timeline. In my experience, Powers does his homework, but the
> following seems like an anachronism to me.
>
> The first chapter is set in Las Vegas in 1943, and it's written in tight
> third person, through the eyes of one of the characters.
>
> "They drove around, and found a new casino called the Moulin Rouge in
> the colored neighborhood west of the 91."
>
> We've discussed the use of "the :number:" to refer to highways, but I
> was under the impression that that was a Southern California innovation,
> dating to sometime in the 1980s and usually referring to interstates .
> Would someone in Las Vegas in the '40s use it, to refer to (I presume) a
> state highway? Anyone know?
>
> Jim Parish
>
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