[Ads-l] "The 91"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Mar 25, 2018, at 6:36 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> I'm currently rereading Tim Powers' novel _Last Call_, and was just struck by something. Powers specializes in fantasy of the "secret history" type, so the following is set in (what purports to be) our world and timeline. In my experience, Powers does his homework, but the following seems like an anachronism to me.
> 
> The first chapter is set in Las Vegas in 1943, and it's written in tight third person, through the eyes of one of the characters.
> 
> "They drove around, and found a new casino called the Moulin Rouge in the colored neighborhood west of the 91."
> 
> We've discussed the use of "the :number:" to refer to highways, but I was under the impression that that was a Southern California innovation, dating to sometime in the 1980s

Definitely earlier than the ‘80s in SoCal.  Anyone with an early cite handy?  I know when I migrated to L.A. in 1966 and began hearing “the 5” and such somewhat after that it was novel to me, but I hadn't (and still haven't) been to Vegas.  

> and usually referring to interstates . Would someone in Las Vegas in the '40s use it, to refer to (I presume) a state highway? Anyone know?
> 
> Jim Parish
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org