1600 Penn Ave
1) From the excerpt below, what is meant by "or 10?"
2) From the 2nd paragraph, is 1600 Penn Ave the WH address? If not, what then? Thanks in advance.
"America has come a long way in allowing an African American with a Muslim father to run for the top job in the land. I don’t think this would be possible anywhere in the world, perhaps with the exception of India. This wouldn’t be possible even in the “liberal, multicultural” Europe. I can’t imagine Barack Hussein Obama in Elysee Palace in Paris or 10, Downing Street in London. So what we are seeing now is history in the making.
As boxing promoter Don King puts in “Financial Times”, this is a great time to be alive. Picking up a black man to run for the White House — this is a giant leap for a country that not long ago witnessed the blacks being sold and bought like cattle. This historic journey of America would be incomplete if Obama does not reach 1600, Pennsylvania Avenue."
1) It's just an address -- apparently over there it's "10, Downing St.", rather than "10 Downing St"
2) Yes
So the author is just showing off that they know some government building addresses? So dumb.
Thanks
10 Downing Street (The UK Prime Minister's Residence) and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (The White House) are two of the world's most famous addresses. The author isn't really showing off, but using jargon that a lot of well-read and politically astute individuals would instantly recognize.
10 Downing Street, London, SW1. It's just off Whitehall - the main thoroughfare leading down from Trafalgar Square all the way to Parliament Square, Westminster...the very heart of Government in the UK.
No 10 is the official residence of the British Prime Minister, and if he (or she as it was in the case of the first ever and only so far female PM Margaret Thatcher, now known as Baroness Thatcher of somewhere or other - I can't say for sure exactly where without checking it out...possibly Grantham, Lincolnshire, which is where she was born and bred) loses a General Election they have about 24 hours at the most to pack his (or her) bags and ship out to allow the newly elected incumbent to ship in.
You only have to say Number Ten in the UK and everyone will know that you are referring to the said Prime Ministerial official residence....naturally enough all British Prime Ministers have their own private homes elsewhere - either in London itself (rare) or (more likely) out in the green pastures of rural Britain. The current British Prime Minister has his private domicile in the green pastures of The Kingdom of Fife - just across the Firth of Forth from here. He will need to hold onto it as his continued tenure of Number Ten looks decidedly shaky at the present time, to say the least!
I think the vast majority of Brits with an opinion to offer would heartily welcome an official visit to these shores by a certain bloke called Barack sometime after the 20th of January 2009.......but maybe I am a wee bit out of order declaring such a comment in this Forum......bollock me rigid if you feel that I have overstepped a mark...I'm well used to it now. One thing my job is certain to provide is the acquisition of a skin as thick as an elephant's.
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is well-known as the street address of the White House, as 10 Downing Street is well-known as the UK prime minister's residence.
There probably shouldn't be any commas in those addresses -- never seen them before.
I agree with Uriel--I've never seen commas for either address, on either side of the Atlantic. Also, as Damian alluded to, the UK address is often referred to as "Number 10 Downing Street." (You'll never hear "Number 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.")
So far, the most famous case, by far, relating to this thread has not been mentioned. The above is trivial in comparison.
Have been wondering the same thing
By the way, is it pronounced "sixteen hundred" in the address?
<<By the way, is it pronounced "sixteen hundred" in the address? >
yes
It is where George Bush lives.