First of all, how does one pluralize the? Thes? The’s? Neither seem right.

Second, the way to remember that it’s not The National Review but National Review is that we are NRO not TNRO and National Review is NR not TNR (the initials for The New Republic). I’m often confused when people send me email referring to NR as TNR because in the tiny world of ideological magazines, we’ve always been NR and they’ve always been TNR.

Third, Derb you occidentalist you. I thought the whole “The” before countries things was largely a product of the Western imperial mind. We referred to The Ukraine because it was a region rather than a nation. Ditto all those other places. My understanding is that Ukranians get quite grumpy if you refer to their Great and Historic Nation as if it were just a geographical locale like “the Catskills.”

Fourth, the Bronx, however, is a different story.