XPost: rec.arts.comics.strips   
   From: psperson@old.netcom.invalid   
      
   On Mon, 12 Jan 2026 19:53:39 -0500 (EST), kludge@panix.com (Scott   
   Dorsey) wrote:   
      
   >Cryptoengineer   wrote:   
   >>On 1/9/2026 9:28 PM, Ted Nolan  wrote:   
   >>> I read somewhere that we get the THE in "he's in the hospital"   
   >>> and other inclusions of the definite article by way of the Irish, or   
   >>> Irish immigrants anyway.   
   >>   
   >>I have a unresearched notion that the distinction in the US is   
   >>whether the location referred to has an abstract meaning   
   >>independent of a particular physical structure, or whether   
   >>you're trying to talk about a particular instance.   
   >   
   >It gets weirder in the case of surgery.  It used to be that a person   
   >"was in the surgery" when they were having an operation there.  Then   
   >they "were in surgery" through the same kind of transformation of the   
   >article.   
   >   
   >But now, THAT has been transformed into "he's having a surgery" in which   
   >"surgery" has come to mean the procedure instead of the facility.  I   
   >don't know how the hell that one came about.   
      
   I suggest that "were in surgery" /could/ be interpreted as "being   
   operated on" (or perhaps "were operating on") rather than "being in   
   the facility". "having a surgery" would then follow naturaly from   
   "were in surgery".   
   --    
   "Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,   
   Who evil spoke of everyone but God,   
   Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)