Last week a friend from out of town came back from his day trip to the Museum of Modern Art and told me he had a great time at the MOMA.
“MOMA,” I said.
“That’s what I said,” he responded.
“No,” I said. “You called it ‘the MOMA’. You should just say ‘MOMA’. That is, if you don’t want people to realize you’re a tourist.”
Then today I was talking with a friend who happens to be in her twenties. I said I had ordered something from on-line, and she laughed.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You said ‘from on-line,'” she explained. “It’s just ‘on-line’, as in: ‘I ordered something on-line.'”
I vowed that from now on I will just say ‘on-line’. That is, if I don’t want people to realize I’m a tourist.