Isn't it amusing to hear the things that push people's buttons? I'm 50 and from South Louisiana (in TX for the last 20 years) and for my entire life I have only heard, read, and said "all of a sudden." Inexplicably, over the last few months I'm hearing "all the sudden" exclusively. Like another poster, at first I thought I was mis-hearing it, but the final straw was a newscaster this morning who clearly said "all the sudden," prompting me to find this site. I loved all the comments, and particularly relate to StewDog, Kirby, Matthew (thanks for the statistics), and Finally.
With age comes--if not wisdom, at least tolerance. A few years ago I would have indignantly ranted in support of "all of a sudden," but now I will just join with StewDog and Candace and accept that just because one has heard it one way all his life, and will believe his way is the correct one, it's not worth the effort to try to change others' convictions. After reading all the posts, maybe now I won't grit my teeth so hard now when I hear "all the sudden."