Every frickin’ news story I see (most lately McCain’s blather) refers to Arizona as Ariz. AS IF this state didn’t have the FOURTH biggest city in the US. What … are people really that stupid? What other state would they confuse an A and a Z with? Arkansas? Alaska? As far as I can see they do this with NO OTHER state.
As a lifetime AZ resident, it just really pisses me off.
What can I say? I’m in a bad mood. We are sending arms to Syria (I know…another forum etal.) … just really finally had enough.
At any rate, the 2 letter designation was for postal codes only, wasn’t it? Isn’t it being kind of, uh, strange, to want to have postal designations subvert traditional references? Esp. now that the PO is going to crap?
Hey, wait, I know you! You’re the new IG at the PO! You should be ashamed of yourself for trying to drum up business with this stunt!
The problem is that these damned journalists blindly follow the Associated Press Style Guide without even considering the negative impact it might have on people from Ariz.
The authors of the news stories may be aware that anyone who uses the two-letter abbreviation places him- or herself inside a Federal Area, which includes the District of Columbia, which covers the entire US, and is therefore required to pay income tax. All because of the [cue ominous music] Buck Act. Read it and weep, sheeple.
(The linked site is actually a debunking of the various claims about the Buck Act. I’ve only dipped into the originals enough to confirm that they’re jaw-droppingly insane.)
Let me see: I’m from Ind. To my north is Mich. Traveling clockwise, well, nobody around here abbreviates Ohio; then Kentucky usually does get dropped down to KY (or Ky.), and on around to Ill. Nothing unusual about over-two-letter abbreviations in the Midwest (MW).
People outside of the USA may not understand two-letter state abbreviations. I mention this only because I’ve experienced a number of cases where people seem to be unaware of the world outside the borders of the USA.
I was going to say, all US news stories (at least those filed by organizations whose stylebooks are based on AP style, which is pretty much most of the American ones) use the traditional abbreviations (or a slight variant thereof) rather than the USPS abbreviations. It’s somewhat odd, as AP style is usually space-saving, but I assume it’s because the more “natural” abbreviations just look better in a line of text and are less prone to causing some readers confusion. Like the confusion that may surround “AL” (Alabama vs Alasaka), “AK” (Alaska vs Arkansas), “AR” (Arkansas vs Arizona), etc.
I was very surprised recently when I was driving in IN near the IL border and saw official green highway signs identifying destinations as Anytown “Ill.”
Especially noticed it as I had just read a book on fonts that addressed the historical trends and standardization re: road signs.
But Ariz? Isn’t that some place in the Middle East?
And it’s not even people outside the US. I still hiccup or have to think for a second or two if I come across a town I’ve never heard of with a two-letter postal code. For example, for some reason, my brain always wants to parse AK as Arkansas rather than Alaska. And I can see all the A and M abbreviations being confusing, which is why in news copy the true abbreviation style (as opposed to the two-letter code system or contractions) is clearer.
