It ain't Smokey "the" Bear and it ain't "the" Earth!!

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?

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.

Our planet is called Earth. We live on "the" Earth. Slightly different
forms of usage, that's all.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Apr 20, 9:32 pm, Chris L Peterson wrote:


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.


Southern California.

People up (the) Bay Area way don't say 'I saw a crash on THE 101",
they use the numbers like they should be used: The Highway is called
Highway 101.

Its not Highway THE 101.

Those in SoCal who use 'the' in front of the freeway's name sound like
corrupted Easterners who migrated West.

Lastley:

Alien: Where do you live?

Human: I live on THE Earth.
Human II: I live on Earth.

Both are correct.

TBerk
don't forget, Brits go to 'Hospital' and 'University'. No _the_ about
it...

On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:01:07 -0700 (PDT), TBerk
wrote:

People up (the) Bay Area way don't say 'I saw a crash on THE 101",
they use the numbers like they should be used: The Highway is called
Highway 101.

The point is, that's NOT how it "should" be used. Either is fine. It's
just convention, that varies with culture (even very subtle cultural
differences, in this case). When saying "the 101" in reference to a
highway, "101" isn't really a number, it's a proper noun.

Its not Highway THE 101.

It's not that in Southern California, either, or anywhere else I'm
familiar with.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

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

"David Weinshenker" wrote:

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


Yep. 'Cause the entire S.F. Peninsula calls their section of 101 "The
Bay Shore Freeway".

Crazy Ed

Edward Erbeck wrote:
"David Weinshenker" wrote:

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


Yep. 'Cause the entire S.F. Peninsula calls their section of 101 "The
Bay Shore Freeway".

Only on the maps: nobody around here uses that name in practice.

-dave w

David Weinshenker wrote:
Yep. 'Cause the entire S.F. Peninsula calls their section of 101 "The
Bay Shore Freeway".

Only on the maps: nobody around here uses that name in practice.

I never called it the Bayshore Freeway, but I did call 17 the Nimitz on
occasion. (Or is it 880?)

Funny thing is, I now live in Southern California, and I say "the 10"
and "the 405," but when I go back up to the Bay Area, I still say just
"101" and "85," not "the 101" and "the 85." Even more weirdly, I say
"the 101" down here. Evidently, it's very context-sensitive for me.

--
Brian Tung
NOTE: Below addresses changing soon...
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.html

On 2008-04-21, 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?

The Earth is la Tierra or der Erde or whatever language you have.

Bud

"Martin R. Howell" wrote in message
...
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?

Yes.