A scene from "Contagion." Photo from The Guardian.

Writing In The Guardian …
… the eternally cranky Joe Queenan has a bone to pick with Hollywood over its mastery of geography and why it insists on doing stuff like dropping the comma separating “Minneapolis” and “Minnesota” so a location looks like “Minneapolis Minnesota” in a film scene.

There’s a kind of “Hey Kids, Get Off My Lawn!” vibe here, but it’s a fun read:

“Lately, I have noticed the comma between the city and country or city and state has been dropped. Thus, in Contagion, the action is identified as taking place in “Minneapolis Minnesota” or “Chicago Illinois” or “Geneva Switzerland”. That looks a bit stupid, suggesting the graphics person has either not yet finished school, or never seen a high-class movie. But even more worrying is how confusing all this might be to callow, impressionable youths. Children growing up in rural Florida could easily get the idea that “Geneva Switzerland” is the name of one of the characters in the film and not the name of a famous European city. The same goes for “Paris France” and “Florence Italy” and even “London England.” Paris and Florence are first names for girls, and London is the name of a character in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.”

Read the full story here.