Re: [Thinkpad] OT: lower 48

If we're being pedantic, there is nothing in my Webster's
to say that "upper" is North, nor that "lower" is South.
Upper and lower do have geographical meanings which have no
bearing in this context.

I once lived in Upper Canada (now called Ontario), never
in Lower Canada (now called Quebec). But Quebec extends
farther North; Ontario farther South. It's because the
geographical meanings of Upper and Lower have nothing to
do with North and South.

"Lower" in this phrase is just a familiar word that does not
need to be interpreted, any more than if you were to use "the
floogle 48 states".

>> Language works by widespread use.
>
>One often hears this said in the defense of improper usage.
>
>> On reflection, lower 48 is not geographically incorrect. It refers to
>> the 48 contiguous states.
>
>No, it refers to the "lower 48 states". There is no sense in which
>Hawaii is not lower than many other states.

If you draw a line from the magnetic North Pole to Australia...

>For that matter, "contiguous" is misleading

In what way? Webster's defines "contiguous" as "touching". Those
48 states touch one another. Hawaii and Alaska do not touch any
of them.

Each of them can't touch ALL of the others, that would
be impossible (memories of a grad student friend who
unluckily chose some part of the "Four Colour Theorem"
for his dissertation, was unable to make an advance in
Knowledge, and thus didn't become Dr. So-and-so). Maybe you
could argue that a pinwheel arrangement would be contiguous,
but not everybody would buy that. Contiguous 48 anything
(on a plane) would be an oxymoron if that were what
contiguous implied.

>for the middle 48 states;
>"conterminous" is more accurate.
>
>Bruce's "CONUS" is absolutely unobjectionable; though it has a
>misleading origin, it is now a legal term defined by Federal statute.
>
>- David R.
>

A huge mess of garbagey papers is conterminous with a Thinkpad
on my desk.

-- 
happy
Jonathan Berry and Erika http://members.shaw.ca/berry5868/fun.htm
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