"carmageddon" -- word of the weekend?

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Jul 15 15:06:38 UTC 2011


On Jul 15, 2011, at 12:52 AM, Nancy Friedman wrote:

> 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).

Yup, as observed even by Chris (“Westside Strangler”) Brennan.  The oddest nomenclatural designation in the area for me was not “the n” for Interstate n, but the use of “the Southland” for the entire region (the L.A. Basin).  When I arrived in 1966, I had no idea I had landed in the Southland…

>
> Angelenos always use "the" in front of freeway numbers; the rest of the
> state doesn’t.

Well, as noted a while ago, at least Santa Barbarans do—it pops up, for example, in the Alphabet (Kinsey Millhone) series of mysteries by Sue Grafton.

LH

> 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
>
> _______
>
> Word of the week:  Butler lie. http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com
>
> Nancy Friedman
> web  www.wordworking.com
> blog  http://nancyfriedman.typepad.com
> Top 10 Language Professionals Blog 2011 http://bit.ly/kHCN6u
> tel 510 652-4159
> cel 510 304-3953
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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

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



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