"The" World, ... and more
For years I lived in Colorado Springs, CO, and didn't realize that I didn't know the name of Colorado College. As part of a general awakening for me to my surroundings about twenty years ago, I discovered that it was actually The Colorado College. It may have been the college all along, and I had just overlooked it, or perhaps the Board of Governors (or whatever) recognized that The Ohio State University was getting a lot of mileage out of putting the "the" in front of their name, with instructions for adherents to really emphasize it when spoken: "THE Ohio State University."
I kind of get it. There are other colleges in Colorado, including ones with Colorado in their names, so just saying "Colorado College" might be ambiguous. But that's not generally done in this country. Folks seem to tolerate a certain amount of ambiguity in lieu of hauling around extra articles. I mean, there are plenty of natural springs in Colorado, but does that justify calling it The Colorado Springs? No! (And don't go getting ideas!) To me, that just comes off sounding hoity-toity and snobby.
Oh, wait. Now I understand!
But that doesn't explain The Ohio State University*, which is anything but hoity-toity. And I find it hard to believe that there are so many Ohio State Universities as to cause confusion. Although, I've been wrong before. Recently. Maybe they just aspire to be hoity-toity? If so, a better place to start might be to keep their football players out of jail.
Or The Hague; really, are there all that many Hagues out there that we have to call it The Hague? At least once The Ukraine became a nation of its own, separate from the U.S.S.R., they (or maybe just we) dropped the "The." That one took some getting used to. I still want to say The Ukraine, against my better judgement.
On the other hand, in the movie "Titanic," the characters all assiduously referred to the ship as Titanic, not The Titanic like earthlings do. They were clearly coached to do this, and it seemed as unnatural for them to say it as it did for me to hear it ... they seemed to strain at it a little each time. That was distracting through the whole movie.
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I think I've ranted about "and more" in store names before. That is an affectation that shop-keepers of the olde shoppe variety hope will entice buyers into their potpourri shop "Scents ... and more!"when what we're out shopping for is an impact wrench. The worst offender of all is maybe the store in Colorado Springs (and possibly elsewhere, it's probably a chain): Everything ... and more! Wow! Mind bending!
I actually have seen a car ad recently that stated that their new car delivered "Everything you could want in a performance sedan ... and more!" as if that were a good thing. If we're going off beyond everything I could want, aren't we into a kind of adversarial position here? How about just stop at what I actually want, okay? That'll be fine.
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We shopped for mattresses recently from Mattress World. Imagine what a nightmare of a solar system this would be: Mattress World, Tire World, Electronics World, Burger World, Women's World (that one might be okay), Cartridge World, Hair World ... and more!
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* By the way, if The Ohio State University is really the name, shouldn't it be TOSU? Likewise TCC for The Colorado College? Hmmm?
posted by Mique @ 12:43 PM
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