Posted on 12/06/2017 12:53:49 PM PST by Kaslin
RUSH: We hear stories about fires in southern California all the time. They usually happen in the spring, late spring and the early summer, and they happen frequently enough that people don’t pay a whole lot of attention the farther away from the fires they live. But a fire started at 5:30 this morning out in California. I mean, this is Los Angeles, this is Bel-Air, this is Brentwood, potentially, this is Beverly Hills, potentially, Hollywood.
This is the 405, which is the busiest highway in America on certain occasions. It’s essentially a north-south artery. Your navigation system in your car will call it the 405, but locals call it the 405. It basically runs north-south, but it’s more north-northwest, south-southeast. It runs right by the Getty Center, and the fire is right across the interstate, right across the highway from the Getty Center. The Getty Center is one of the primary art museums in the area.
I take the route when I’m out there. This is the route that I take going to work every morning at 5:30, five a.m. straight out of Beverly Hills, hit the 405, zip up there. I’m not gonna tell you the final destination, ’cause that means the next time I’m there, there will be crowds outside the building. But that’s the highway I take to get where I’m going. They’re smirking in there on the other side of the glass.
But, folks, this is not out in some wilderness area. This is Bel-Air, the northern reaches of Bel-Air south of Sherman Oaks to what would be the east of the 405. Reagan lived in Bel-Air. I joke that the average home price in Bel-Air is $30 million.
There’s a guy named Gary Winnick who made a whole bunch of money in a funny way during the Clinton years. He was part of a fiberoptic company that was involved in some sort of shenanigans. He bought a $65 million home that overlooks the Bel Air Country Club. Every time I play the course, we all point it out, there it is, wonder what Winnick is doing up there. Similar, Michael Jackson’s home that he lived in when he died, Holmby Hills, are just right down the road from where this is taking place.
Now, the fire has not reached, at least when the program started, hadn’t reached far enough south to get to Beverly Hills or even the Bel-Air Country Club. You can look at this on a map.
If you find Mulholland Drive, which is big, Nicholson lived there, if you look at Mulholland Drive where it intersects the 405, you’ll see Sherman Oaks to the north and Bevery Hills, you’ll see where this is. This is not out in the valley. This is Hollywood. This is LA. This is bad.
Thank you. I’m two states north and have driven THE 405 several times as well as THE 5 and THE 101 but did not know that.
It is unfortunate to read that sentiment on FR every time a disaster is close at hand.
It’s a quirk of Southern California, - maybe Northern California, or the West in general, - but folks never say “405 Northâ€ÂÂ, they say “Take ‘The’ 405 North, or ‘take ‘The’ Foothill Freewayâ€ÂÂ, and the emphasis is put on the word “Theâ€ÂÂ
My son-in-law (NJ) still makes fun of us for speaking of all highways that way, and we left California almost 30 years ago. To get to Massachusetts, take The 95!
Sorry, I previewed, and tried retyping twice, but the iPad is goofing up the caps!
It’s a quirk of Southern California, - maybe Northern California, or the West in general, - but folks never say “405 Northâ€ÂÂ, they say “Take ‘The’ 405 North, or ‘take ‘The’ Foothill Freewayâ€ÂÂ, and the emphasis is put on the word “Theâ€ÂÂ
My son-in-law (NJ) still makes fun of us for speaking of all highways that way, and we left California almost 30 years ago. To get to Massachusetts, take The 95!
Sorry, I previewed, and tried retyping twice, but the iPad is goofing up the caps!
I wouldn’t know.
My 20 yr old son is in the Hollywood Hills. I hate CA too but I am worried about my son. He texted me a couple of hours ago but the fire is still raging.
You will never hear anybody in the Bay Area and points north refer to a road like that. Actually, probably nobody north of Santa Barbara speaks like that. It’s a SoCal peculiarity.
Kind of the inverse of the Brits dropping the article “the” from hospital and university.
Yes, I heard the latter in British Columbia also.
It’s always amusing how the American English rules are so inscrutable. Your kids would never say “I’m going to THE school now.” Nope, it’s “I’m going to school.”
But you say “I’m going to THE university.”
Nobody ever said learning English was easy.
Well, if your’e going to San Diego, you do usually get on the 405 which merges into the 5 which does go to San Diego—but the 5 already had a name, the Santa Ana Freeway, because back in the day when they were naming the freeways (before the interstate system was created) that’s all the farther it went.
You can get to San Diego the old fashioned way on Pacific Coast Highway—used to be US 101—now Cal 1.
When in Portland, OR, always refer to I-84 as “The Banfield” if you want to blend in with the locals for some reason. And learn how to pronounce ‘Willamette’ and ‘Tualatin’ ahead of time.
It might also be ISIS
Orlando Florida radio hosts have also adopted using “the” in front of route numbers.
I've been sad for the animals there. Trying to be sad about the Hollywierd part but I just have not gotten there yet.
It is because it roughly corresponds to the western route laid out in the 1955 plan which went all the way down toward San Diego.
LOL!! Post of the day!!
If you use the names of freeways--the Santa Ana Freeway, San Bernardino Freeway, the Santa Monica Freeway, etc.--like I do, you're considered an old-timer.
It’s God’s wrath for the acceptance of homosexuality in our lives.
Never, never, never get on the 5 in Orange or LA County
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