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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I thought it was called the Gulf of Mexico, or are we talking about some other body of water? No mammoths had earlier been discovered on the Texas Gulf Coast, Brian Miles, paleontology curator at the Brazosport Museum of Natural Science, told The Brazosport Facts in Tuesday's online edition.http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/2/2004/01/13/story006.htmlBingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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It’s a surreptitious approach to that good old American tradition of ‘claim-jumping’. Like the man said, “I’m not greedy, I just want to own the land next to mine.” 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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The Texas Gulf Coast would presumably be that stretch of coastline, and it's a long one, that defines the outer edge of Texas. As a scientist, Mr. Miles would surely be as specific as possible. http://www.texasescapes.com/Maps/TexasMaps.htm
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yes, you could also refer to the Florida Gulf Coast, since, like Texas, it has bodies of water on both sides. I'd imagine that for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, "coast" alone would be sufficient.
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Joined: Sep 2001
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
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I don't think it's renaming the Gulf of Mexico, as others have pointed out here, and I agree that it's simply naming a region of Texas--and regions are generally capitalized, at least in American English!  'The Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico' would have simply been to dadburned wordy!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I think it might be useful to add that, as a non-USn, I understood the phrase in exactly the way described by WW and the ASp.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
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Yup, I'd agree with the others Bingley. I'm thinking he was being very specific. If he had just said "the Gulf of Mexico" then it could conceivably been in Florida or Mexico too. This way, he pinpoints it.
It's like saying something is in Montreal rather than just saying Canada.
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
As a scientist, Mr. Miles would surely be as specific as possible.
If he wanted to be as specific as possible, then I would go for Wordwind's "the Texas coast of the Gulf of Mexico", or since Texas, as far as I can make out from the map supplied by consuelo, only has the one coast, just 'the coast of Texas'.
Bingley
Bingley
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Oooh, I think this is something of a storm in a teacup, but ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It can just as easy be interpreted as 'the Gulf Coast, specifically that part which is in the state of Texas.' We are not given privy to the context, but it is not difficult to imagine that it has already been specified which gulf we are talking about.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Why did I think Texas had two coasts?? I got it mixed up with Mexico.
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