[Ads-l] "The 91"

[Laurence Horn]

> On Mar 26, 2018, at 6:59 PM, Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Thanks! I'm glad to hear that Powers didn't slip up on this one.
> 
> Jim Parish

I don’t know.  I can imagine “[west of] the US (highway) 91” being in use then and “[west of] the 91” not being.

LH
> 
> 
> On 3/26/2018 8:49 AM, Peter Reitan wrote:
>> A few Nevada newspapers in the 40s/50s refer to "the US 91" or "the US highway 91."
>> ________________________________
>> From: Jim Parish<mailto:jparish at SIUE.EDU>
>> Sent: ‎3/‎25/‎2018 15:37
>> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Subject: "The 91"
>> 
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Jim Parish <jparish at SIUE.EDU>
>> Subject:      "The 91"
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> 
>> 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 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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