Further vs. Farther

I was walking to grab a quick lunch yesterday on a break from my internship with one of the producers when he started to tell me about the best places to eat in the area. He told me about a good Thai place, a good burrito place ("good burritos" is an oxymoron in New York City, though I take it with a grain of salt and understand "good" to be a relative term), and some good sandwich places. Then he said, "And a little bit further down 9th Avenue," and then he stopped, and added, "farther?" I smiled internally: these are the kinds of questions that make me tick.

For the record, this situation does not represent a dilemma. A dilemma is a situation or problem in which both possible options are unpleasant or uncomfortable, and one is forced to choose, essentially, the lesser of two evils. One of the most common examples of this is the Prisoner's Dilemma. When in a state of deliberation between two things that aren't necessarily bad, the correct terminology is quandary. But I digress...

Last night Suzanne and Steve took me out to eat sushi at Wasabi Lobby, which is no farther than two blocks from my apartment, to celebrate my summer internship with the CBS Evening News Investigative Unit. Before I go any further, and while I'm on the subject of Wasabi Lobby, I must add that although the sushi rolls they serve are unique and delicious, I was extremely disappointed when I noticed that the menu offered "Chiken Teriyaki." I wouldn't be me if I didn't at the very least make mention of the obvious typo. Moving on... Over quite possibly the best specialty tuna roll I've ever had, Suzi asked that I blog about further vs. farther. Since I had already encountered the question once that day, I decided I had better address it.

Quite simply, farther refers to physical distance while further refers to abstract distance or depth. In The Elements of Style, my trusty friends Strunk and White explain it this way:

Farther. Further. The two words are commonly interchanged, but there is a distinction worth observing: farther serves best as a distance word, further as a time or quantity word. You chase a ball farther than the other fellow; you pursue a subject further.

I'll close with this: though I'm much farther away from my family now that I'm in New York, I think the move was well worth it so that I could further my education. I certainly don't see myself moving back any time soon. Did I take it too far?