"block" ~= street, and the OED?

[Jonathan Lighter]

There was even a safety jingle that went, "Don't cross the street in the
middle, in the middle, in the middle, in the middle, in the middle of the
block!"

Repeat till insane.

JL

On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 3:27 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "block" ~= street, and the OED?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > go "across the block" (i.e., straight across the street)
>
> The same act also known as "crossing [the street] in the middle of the
> block," wherein _middle_ is essentially any location not at an
> intersection and not necessarily in the literal "middle" of the block.
>
> --
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
> to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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