grump

[gfish]

Who else gets slightly annoyed when people don't use the correct map-relative direction (up->north, down->south, over->east/west) when talking about large-scale geography? From Seattle I can head up to Vancouver, down to Portland, or over to Spokane. Period.

Comments

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

What about up/down[-hill], either on the local gradient or absolute altitude? Would you really head down to Rainier or Everest?

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

(or over to Broadway from downtown?)

[caladri.livejournal.com]

Down to the high plains? Up to the coast? Down to the continental divide?

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Conversely, I guess I *would* head over to Denver...

[randomdreams.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Leadville, it was absolutely *down* to Denver, even though Leadville is south of Denver, but a mile higher. When I lived in Loveland, it was down to Denver, too, since Loveland is at the same elevation but directly north. But from Portland or Boise it was *up* to Denver, and I'm not quite sure the justification.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I think the Z-axis displacement has to be very pronounced before I would switch to that. Usually that would mean a very local scale, up to Broadway from downtown etc. Even Everest would be down, I think, if I was more than a few hundred miles to the north. That might change if I was actually climbing it, though, as the vast bulk of the journey in terms of time and effort would be in the upping. Hrm.

[neuro42.livejournal.com]

Also, what of "just down the street"? Especially on a one-way street? Or for values of street equal to river or other navigable body of water?

[ashley-y.livejournal.com]

down to Rainier, but up Rainier.