"The 101"

[Geoffrey Nunberg]

To San Franciscans, there was always something ludicrous about the
way the characters on the cop show "Nash Bridges," which was set
here, talked about "the 101" and "the 280," a gaffe equivalent to
referring to the city as Frisco. What would you call the geographical
equivalent of an anachronism -- an atopism?

Geoff Nunberg


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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       AAllan at AOL.COM
>Subject:      "The 101"
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>
>The August 14 Denver Post has an article on transportation construction in
>Denver that makes use of the Southern California "the" in referring
>to numbered
>highways:
>
><<<One Colorado native, musing about all the traffic on C-470, commented: "I
>remember when there wasn't a C-470. 'What did all these people drive on
>then?"' she said she asked her husband. He replied, "The 101."
>
>It's a funny line about a famous California highway, but he was right: It
>isn't California-bashing to say that many of the drivers on T-REX
>grew up driving
>in a land where 90-minute, 30-mile commutes are common. If they complained
>about traffic here to family back home, they'd be laughed off the phone.>>>
>
>Opinion article by Scott C. Yates; available at
>http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E73%257E1584142,00.html
>
>- Allan Metcalf