Friday, March 18, 2011

In, at and on: weird language

A story at physorg.com today begins like this:
"As Spring continues to unfold at Saturn . . ."
At Saturn? Not on Saturn? This sounds so strange and wrong to me. What's with the "at", guys? I even see this in reference to places on Earth (note I didn't say "at Earth"). People will say, "He was at England when he . . ." At? 

I don't get it. Storms occur on Saturn, not at Saturn. And one is in England, not at England. Language has gotten very odd in this area and I'm not sure why. Any suggestions?