What was the name of this landmark. It was show a number of times during the war as the army advanced on Baghdad. Just as I described, it looked like two giant swords crossed over the interstate.
Crossed swords. Yeah. That would be the “Hands of Victory” monument.
Scroll down.
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/baghdad-monuments.htm
Urk.
Interstate Highway? I was not aware Iraq had been annexed as a new state of the Union. Was that before or after Canada was made a state?
In Colloquial American usage, “interstate” refers to any four-lane highway.
Even if it’s in Iraq and not even a road at all but a parade ground?
I have never heard that. I just call a four lane highway a highway or do you feel the need to distinguish it from a one lane highway? (More commonly known as an “alley”)
Many thanks, Goose.
And, sailor, I was merely adding artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
“Interstate” (capitalized) might cause a quibble, but ‘interstate’ is often used as a folksy descriptor for a certain style of divided roadway, to distinguish it from other forms of highways common in the US, just as “Jersey barriers” is an unofficial term used well outside of Jersey or New Jersey. Hawaii certainly has an I/interstate (by either definition) that doesn’t connect two states
We’re just following a long British, and general English language. precedent. Any four-wheeled horse-drawn, 2-4 seat, pleasure carriage was called a surrey or surrey cart, even if built far from Surrey, and unlike anything that ever graced the roads of Surrey - though such carts didn’t originate in Surrey, but were simply associated with it in the British mind. Worcestershire sauce disn’t originate in Worcester, but was brought back to Worcester by Lord Marcus Sandys in 1835 when he retired as Governor General of India; Worcestershire was simply the local source when it caught on in England. There are countless [undoubtedly better] examples.
I welcome such evocative terms, though I realize that it is simply impossible for any term to evoke identical images worldwide.