Fussing Over "The"

Two days ago, I found myself in the middle of a debate, the source of the conflict being the title of the latest Batman movie.

I was raving about how wonderful The Dark Knight was and one co-worker (a guy named Wowoo) corrected me. "Shan, it's Dark Knight. There's no The."

I, of course, took a break from my raving and became quiet for a while. Then Wendell, another co-worker, seconded his statement.

I was frowning by then.

No, no, no, no. It's The Dark Knight.

No, there's no The.

And so on.

They were laughing at me. Those who overheard were amused. What's the fuss? they asked. It's the same old thing.

But I knew better. It wasn't the same.

I wasn't one to back away from "fights" like this. I once won a hundred bucks in a bet with a colleague over the words "anarchy" and "archaic." I knew I was sure about The Batman thing and I wasn't about to give up. But I knew I needed concrete, incontestable proof. And I was going to get one.

The next day, I approached my worthy opponents (separately, so the confrontation had to be done twice) and told them in a firm, solemn voice that I had done a lot of research (a tv documentary, a magazine review and a blog entry written by a credible, established writer named Luis Katigbak) and I had irrefutable proof that the movie's title was The Dark Knight. With a The, not without.

It might have been the mention of my sources, or the earnestness in my tone, but they clearly admitted defeat when one of them said, "really? But I thought it was... oh, well. Okay. So it's The Dark Knight, then" and the other said, "I knew that. It was Wowoo who was insisting it's Dark Knight."

Another battle has been won.

Let's move on to the next.