Editorial | I’ve got a preposition and a couple other tidbits to discuss with you

||| BY LIN MCNULTY, theORCASONIAN EDITOR |||

Every once in awhile, we receive a request from someone looking to re-connect with an old acquaintance, to look up a childhood or college friend. The requester kind of assumes that a local news site would be a good spot to check-in — because of course we would know everybody that lives here. Sometimes we actually do know who they are looking for, but, more likely, we know somebody who knows somebody and can do an island grapevine thing to get these folks re-connected. It’s a fun perk of the job, and, yes, we protect privacy in the process.

A common thread from the petitioner is that they are seeking to contact someone who lives in Orcas Island. In. Anybody who has lived here for more than eight hours has learned that you don’t live in an island, but that you live on an island. I can accept that slight of phrase from mainlanders who don’t know better. But recently, the turn of phrase was expressed by someone we might think would know better, as he works on an island. (That’s as much of a hint as you’ll get.)

This has been bumping around in my cranium for a long time, along with some other terms that we, as Orcas Islanders, need to get straight:

• West Sound is always two words.
• Eastsound is the village and East Sound is the body of water along the south shore of Eastsound.
• There are no towns on Orcas Island, only villages and hamlets.
• The only town in the county is Friday Harbor, incorporated with a mayor and everything.

Now that I’ve expressed this long-gnawing predicament of mine, I guess I’ll now be able to let it go, right? Never to be troubled again? I can now move on to something else…right? Right?