"All roads would lead to the king"

[Garson O'Toole]

Here is one interpretation: The Square with the King's statue is the
centrally located focal point of the town. The grid structure allows
easy access to the Square with at most two turns required for any
path. The writer used poetic license to say that the roads lead to the
designed focal point, i.e., "lead to the King."

The writer did not say that all the roads would lead directly to the
King. Of course, one might also say of the efficient grid structure
that the roads "lead away from the King." But who is selecting and
paying for this commission?

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 11:29 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "All roads would lead to the king"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Four roads would lead to the square, not two -- a square has four sides --
> but unless the town is very small, your point seems a good one.
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 10:52 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      "All roads would lead to the king"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> I cannot make sense of "all roads" in the following statement:
>>
>> "At the town's center was to be a 'spacious Square, with an
>> Equestrian Statue of his present Majesty in the Center of it.'  The
>> streets were 'all built in straight lines, crossing one another at
>> right angles.'  In this town, all roads would lead to the king."
>>
>> Is it not the case that in such a rectangular grid, only two roads
>> would lead to the king, not "all"?  Am I misunderstanding English or
>> plane (Euclidean) geometry?
>>
>> Joel
>>
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