continuity of parks

In reference to the planet we live on, "earth" is usually preceded by "the" and is not capitalized. "The sun" and "the moon" are treated the same way {a full moon occurs when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the earth}.

But the proper names of those celestial bodies ("Sol" and "Luna"), though used rarely, are capitalized with no article preceding them. Likewise, when "Earth" is referred to as a proper noun it is capitalized and usually stands alone -- e.g.: "They've named it Quaoar, pronounced KWA-oh-war, after a California Indian creation deity. It's about one-tenth the size of Earth and orbits the sun every 288 years." Faye Flam, "'Quaoar's Discovery Puts Pluto on Edge of Demotion," Advocate (Baton Rouge), 8 Oct. 2002, at A2.

In reference to the stuff that the planet is made of, Roy Copperud states that lowercase "'earth' without 'the' means soil" {the excavation left a large pile of earth} (American Usage and Style: The Consensus 117 [1980]).

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Quotation of the Day: "There is nothing surprising in the constant reinforcement or, if you like, corruption of English by American. And there is every reason to believe that it has increased, is increasing and will not be diminished. If American could influence English a century ago when the predominance of the Mother Country in wealth, population and prestige was secure, and when most educated Americans were reverentially colonial in their attitude to English culture, how can it be prevented from influencing English today when every change has been a change of weight to the American side? That the balance of linguistic power is upset is hard to doubt." D.W. Brogan, "The Conquering Tongue," 170 The Spectator 119 (1943) (as quoted in The Ordeal of American English 43, 43 (C. Merton Babcock ed., 1961)).