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   AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:30:00 JST AI6YR Ben

   Okay, if you were Reed Timmer, where would you go to zero meter a Southern California tornado? The 405? The 101? The 10? South Coast Plaza? The Getty?🤪 #tornado #CAwx

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     Mathaetaes (mathaetaes@infosec.exchange)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:57 JST Mathaetaes

     in reply to

     • MsMerope

     @MsMerope @ai6yr In all seriousness, I suspect it comes from the fact that almost all of our highways are also freeways...

     "Take 5 freeway" is improper English. "Take the 5 freeway" is correct.

     Contrast that with "Take Highway 1" vs Take the Highway 1" - the former is correct.. except pretty much all of our highways are also freeways. Over time, "Take the 5 freeway" turned into "Take the 5"... and the distinction between freeway and highway has always been fuzzy down here - we do have highways that are not freeways, but not many, and on a long enough timeline, they're all doomed to become one.

     Based on your use of English, I have to assume norcal has far more highways that are not freeways, just like most of the flyover states. Thus, when you folks refer to a numbered road, it was always "take highway 66" which turned into "take 66", and the trend then migrated to include all numbered major thoroughfares.

     ... but I still think you all talk like flat-land dustbowl people. 😛

     Steve's Place repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:57 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • MsMerope
     • Mathaetaes

     @mathaetaes @MsMerope

     "Take the 5" is telling people to get on the freeway.

     "Take 5" is telling people to listen to Dave Brubeck

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tT9Eh8wNMkw

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     AI6YR Ben (ai6yr@m.ai6yr.org)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:58 JST AI6YR Ben

     in reply to

     • MsMerope
     • Mathaetaes

     @MsMerope @mathaetaes Norcal people don't use "the" or "a"

     "Take 101 south to San Jose"

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     Mathaetaes (mathaetaes@infosec.exchange)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:58 JST Mathaetaes

     in reply to

     • MsMerope

     @ai6yr @MsMerope Norcal people are adopting habits from the flyover states.

     If they want to behave like landlocked, flat-land, dust bowl folk, that's their choice I guess. :)

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     MsMerope (msmerope@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:58 JST MsMerope

     in reply to

     • Mathaetaes

     @mathaetaes @ai6yr
     I have lived in Northern California for 95% of my life and we have never put a “the” in front of freeway numbers.

     The only thing I can think of that is even kind of like that was that back in the day when Highway 17 Was Highway 17 -before it got 880’d -
     we would call it the Nimitz.

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     Mathaetaes (mathaetaes@infosec.exchange)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:59 JST Mathaetaes

     in reply to

     • MsMerope

     @MsMerope @ai6yr because there's only one of them. Otherwise it'd be "a 101" and wouldn't be very specific.

   • Embed this notice
     MsMerope (msmerope@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:29:59 JST MsMerope

     in reply to

     • Mathaetaes

     @mathaetaes @ai6yr
     Pffft more like you SoCal people are weird 🤪

   • Embed this notice
     MsMerope (msmerope@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 04:30:00 JST MsMerope

     in reply to

     @ai6yr
     Why do you people put “the” in front of everything?

     Steve's Place repeated this.
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     Dave Rahardja (drahardja@sfba.social)'s status on Tuesday, 14-Oct-2025 14:56:50 JST Dave Rahardja

     in reply to

     • MsMerope

     @MsMerope @ai6yr There’s a historical reason for it!

     Los Angeles had highways before US route numbers were used, and before Ike signed the Interstate Highway System into law. Before numbers were used, highways didn’t have official names, and Angelenos simply described them using the area they covered, e.g. “the San Bernardino Freeway”.

     Even after route numbers and interstate numbers were introduced, people kept using the descriptive names, because the route numbers didn’t always align with the old names. Over time, people moved to using the numbers, but never dropped the “the” in the names.

     Northern Californians got freeways much later, and went directly to using their numbers as the descriptors. Although our freeways have names, we use numbers to refer to them. US-101 is called the Bayshore Freeway where I live, but it’s just “101” to us.

     https://www.pbssocal.org/shows/lost-la/the-5-the-101-the-405-why-southern-californians-love-saying-the-before-freeway-numbers