Matt Zeitlin: Impetuous Young Whippersnapper

Kevin Drums lies:

He noted that I, like other Californians, refer to freeways using the definite article: “the 5,” “the 405,” “the 10,” etc. Back east, I guess, you don’t do this, do you? It’s — what? “Highway 5″? Or just no identifier at all, as in “Take 10 west until you fall into the ocean and you’re there”?

Or what? The odd thing is that the definite article habit isn’t quite universal in California, though in my experience it’s pretty close. Highway 99, for example, usually seems to be referred to as “highway 99.” Ditto for the famously scenic Highway 1. Other state highways vary.

Of course no one (besides SoCal transplants) refers to highways in the San Francisco Bay Area with a boorish definite article. They’re “80″ “680″ “24″ “237″. It’s not like there are a bunch of lesser highway 80s that “the” 80 must be distinguished fro. Thankfully, Drum corrected himself, after his Bay Area based commenters lambasted him. But I can’t blame Kevin. Not only do SoCal denizens think of themselves as purely “californian” but most of the country seems to agree. When I say I’m from “California”, I have to quickly follow up and point out that doesn’t mean I’m from the fire-flood-materialism infested portal to hell otherwise known as Southern California.

But this is really just die-hard localism. Southern California has more than three times as many people as the Bay Area (23 million to 7) and a cultural monopoly on what it means to be California. This is all despite the fact that NorCal has the best universities (Cal and Stanford), the best business (Silicon Valley), better weather (ever try to be east of LAX between May and October) and two entrenched, powerful, popular senators. So I guess I can let Kevin continue thinking that where he’s from is all California has to offer – I, and everyone else in the 9 Bay Area counties can confidently say he’s sorely misguided.