Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 20:51:37 -0700 (PDT), "Martin R. Howell"
wrote:

What do you people think of this little point? I always thought that
our planet is named simply, "Earth." So, when I hear something is
good for "the" Earth, I am given to wonder what might be good for
"the" Jupiter, or "the" Venus. Am I getting all worked up over
nothing?

If you really are getting worked up over this, relax g.

There are a lot of proper nouns that get used optionally with "the", and
it varies with language and dialect as well (in German, it's common to
put "the" in front of people's names: it's the Hans's birthday today).
In California you drive to work on "the" 405 (even though you don't live
on "the" Elm Street); here in Colorado if I say I'll drive "the" 25,
people say I'm from California.

In Northern California, if you say that you
drive on "the 101", people will think you're
from Southern California.

-dave w