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

[pielology.livejournal.com]

I think this kind of variation in usage is fascinating and harrumph on your notion of a "correct" relative direction.

I head out to Spokane, since it's less of an urban core than Seattle. When I lived in Iowa, I would drive "in" to Chicago. I might be introspecting wrong here, but I can't think of any instances in which I would say "over" for a large-scale trip. Maybe if I were crossing an ocean or something, or it was a trip I made frequently/casually.

[gfish.livejournal.com]

I'll take 'out' for Spokane, sure. I should have specified that, in that case, I only categorically reject 'up' or 'down'.