How, Exactly, Does One Live IN an Island?

The other night CAM and I were snuggled in for Thursday night tv.... but it was all re-runs.  So we watched Chopped.  After Chopped came a new show on Food Network, called Fat Chef.  (Sounds obnoxious, right?  It wasn't.  They followed two chefs whose jobs are basically killing them, and without being overly "Biggest Loser"-ish and with only the drama that the chefs made themselves, profiled their weight loss efforts over 16 weeks.  Wow, I just made it sound boring.  It was really a good show, I promise.)

Well, one chef was in Harlem.  Can't mess up Harlem.  The other chef owned a bakery in Port Washington, NY, and lived in Bayport, NY.  Both of those towns happen to be ON Long Island.  ON it.  The narrator could not get that right to save her life.  For every transition to the Long Island chef, she'd say something like, "Meanwhile, back in Long Island ..."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!!!!!!!!!

No!  NO!  NOOOOOO!!!!

You don't live IN Long Island!  You live IN Bayport, which happens to be ON Long Island!  On it!  Not in it!  ONNNNN an island!

Please, pray tell, how does one live IN an Island?!

Image from http://mapsof.net/map/new-york-long-island, last viewed 1/29/2012.

Dear Food Network, please get this right next time.  PLEASE.  Go back and re-edit, because this is killing me.

Here's how it should go:


"Meanwhile, back in Port Washington out on Long Island ..."  or, since in fairness, Port Washington really isn't all that far out on the Island, how about "Meanwhile, back in Port Washington, on Long Island," or if you want to be fancy, "...on New York's Long Island ..."  I mean, c'mon.  Really.  Food Network is headquartered in the City, and I'm willing to bet a fair number of their employees hail from good old LI.  Surely they can get this right.

(And while we're at it, there are no freeways ON Long Island.  There are parkways and the Expressway. And a few highways.  But no freeways. 'K? Thanks.)

--Jen


p.s.  yes, I am completely aware that while you don't live in Long Island, you do live in Manhattan, which of course is also the name of an island ... but it's also the name of the borough (Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island make up the five boroughs of New York City).  So, one lives IN Manhattan, which happens to be ON the island of Manhattan, which is IN New York City, IN the State of New York, ON the planet Earth ...

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