In the cigar business the term is used quite often to differentiate between online sales outlets like JR, CI or Famous and the local cigar shop.
Glazer writes:
> Not when you remember that Great Britain is only the size of a medium sized
> State.
The U.K. has about a fifth as many people as the U.S.
I don’t see what the big deal is here. There are plenty of things that are customarily called by slight variations of the official name.
For example, the local newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio, is The Plain Dealer, but unless you live in Cleveland, it is very likely that you refer to it as the Cleveland Plain Dealer or, more formally, as The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. There are, so far as I know, zero other significant newspapers with the name The Plain Dealer, but in colloquial use, the extra modifier is considered necessary.
And it’s even more true with the name The Times. In England, it might be perfectly obvious what newspaper is meant by The Times, but when I use it without modification, I mean The New York Times (although theoretically, I could also use it for The Washington Times). If I were on the West Coast I would mean The Los Angeles Times. There are several newspapers with that name in my consciousness, including The Times of India and The Irish Times.
So, If I’m talking about the London Times, I have to specify. That’s what makes sense to me in the context I live in.
Except that The New York Times is officially called “THe New York Times” and THe TImes of London is called “The TImes”.
In the golf world, if I say “The Open”, no one thinks I’m talking about The US Open, which is officially called “The US Open”.
Damn, they pack them in like sardines over there.
And now that I’m thinking about it there are over a dozen Universities just here in Atlanta. And that doesn’t count Community Colleges or Trade Schools.
Oh, so you ignored all the other sentences I wrote.
If you say “The Open,” I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, so far as I’m concerned it could be in the United States, France, or Australia. Wait that’s tennis. See what I mean? Context is key.
You’re fixated on “official” names. That’s not always the most important consideration when you’re communicating with people.
In facilities management circles, I often hear “brick and mortar” used to describe the permanent buildings, as opposed to mobile units or modular buildings.
It’s also becoming more and more common to differentiate between say, shopping in a physical Target store vs. shopping at Target.com.