Dear Matthew Alice: It seems that whenever I have contact with the news media of Los Angeles, such as the Los Angeles Times or KNX radio, I often come across the terms “Southland” and “Inland Empire.” None of my friends from Los Angeles nor anyone that I have asked in San Diego seems to know what either of these expressions means. We do agree, however, agree that (1) they clearly have something to do with Southern California, but (2) they are not used in San Diego. Surely you can enlighten us on their meaning. — Joe Freeman, San Diego

Territorial chest-thumping in California has been honed to a fine edge, I think. “Southland” and “Inland Empire” are two such examples. (San Diego has the now-shopworn “America’s Finest City” to its credit, I guess.) California north (embodied by San Francisco) and California south (embodied by Los Angeles) have vied for power for as long as there was power to fight over. The origins of “Southland" are unclear but probably sprang from the fertile brain of an early-day newspaperman as a handy reference to the glories of the state from the San Joaquin Valley to the Mexican border. Geographical boundaries of these things are always fuzzy. So “Southland” just means anywhere south of that uppity San Francisco.

According to reams of articles obligingly forwarded from the San Bernardino Public Library, the roots of “Inland Empire” are only slightly less vague but follow the same us-versus-them theme. But this time the “us” is the San B.-Riverside area; “them” is the dreaded Los Angeles. A concept any San Diegan can appreciate, I think. The first printed description of the area as “an Inland Empire" occurred in a newspaper in 1914, perhaps the brainchild of the editor wanting to boost the hinterlands in the eyes of any prospective businessmen. Unfortunately, people are still arguing about the geographic boundaries. Originally it referred to the newspaper’s circulation area — a narrow strip from Upland and Chino to Banning — but now it’s loosely used as a nickname for the general two-county area. The name is so ingrained that you can even find it used in the social system that has evolved among prison inmates. For some, the town you come from dictates who you hang with in the yard, and if you’re from east of the San Gabriel Valley and north of San Diego, you hang with the homies in a group called simply “I.E." Even some inmates don’t realize that it stands for “Inland Empire.”