"carmageddon" -- word of the weekend?

[Nancy Friedman]

L.A.'s "north side" is the San Fernando Valley. The "south side" is South
Central. It's "East L.A.," not "the east side." And the Westside is always
one word (_pace_ the New York Times).

Angelenos always use "the" in front of freeway numbers; the rest of the
state doesn't. Yes, it's technically I-405, but no one in L.A. acknowledges
the interstate. It's always "the 405," "the 110," etc.

More on Carmageddon and L.A. shibboleths: http://bit.ly/pmC5Cg

Nancy

_______

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-----Original Message-----
From: Joel S. Berson [mailto:Berson at ATT.NET]
Sent: Thursday, July 14, 2011 4:52 AM
Subject: Re: "carmageddon" -- word of the weekend?

At 7/13/2011 08:02 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>On Jul 13, 2011, at 7:36 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>
> > Closure of I405 in Los Angeles from Friday night July 15 through 5:00
> > a.m. Monday July 18.
>
>Make that "the 405", as correctly conveyed an hour ago on ABC's World News

Isn't it "also" Interstate 405?  It is so labelled on
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/06/405_freeway_closure_july_16_17_tr
affic_los_angeles_subway.php
(and I'm not familiar with West Coast dialect).

>(which included the info that Jet Blue had offered flights from one
>side of LA to the other for, I believe, $4--all immediately sold out of
course.

Does that mean that LA has a North Side and a South Side?  Do they
have rumbles on Nov. 5?  This year will they burn effigies of Arnold
having a letter A on his outermost garment in a contrary color?

Joel


>LH
> >
> > (I see there earlier was a "graphically violent
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicular_combat_game>vehicular combat
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game>video games produced by
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_Games>Stainless Games,
> > published by
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplay_Entertainment>Interplay and
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Enix_Europe>SCi. It was inspired
> > by the 1975 cult classic movie
> > <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Race_2000>Death Race
> 2000."  Wikipedia.)
> >
> > Joel
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org