We’ve got your hotel surrounded (on one side) (and not even the entire side)

Raymond Chen

A local hotel advertises itself like so:

Surrounding the hotel are popular Seattle attractions such as Pike Place Market, the Space Needle, Safeco Park, home of baseball’s Seattle Mariners, and Qwest Field, home of football’s Seattle Seahawks, all just a short drive away.

Okay, first, it’s Safeco Field, not Safeco Park. Mind you, I’ve misspelled Qwest Field in the past, so maybe I shouldn’t complain. But let’s look at those Seattle attractions which “surround” the hotel:

They all lie in the same direction and subtend a total of twelve degrees of arc. This is a sense of the word “surround” I was previously unfamiliar with. Let’s hope these marketing folks never end up working for the police department.

“Before we continue, we need to surround the building.”

— No problem, Chief, I’ve already got that.

And then the bad guys sneak out the back door.

— I don’t understand how they got away. We had the place surrounded!

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