{"id":8764,"date":"2022-12-15T22:36:06","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T03:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/?p=8764"},"modified":"2022-12-15T23:01:55","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T04:01:55","slug":"naming-unconventions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/naming-unconventions\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming (un)conventions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Never underestimate the creative ingenuity and all-round insouciance of the general public. First, the backstory<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A few years ago, Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council announced a competition to name\u00a0a new research vessel<\/a>.\u00a0 Given the sense of humor of the British public, it was perhaps not surprising that the winner – by a very large margin – was “Boaty McBoatface<\/a>“.\u00a0 Horrified at such unseemly (and un-bureaucratic) levity, the Council stiffly announced that the ship would be christened\u00a0David Attenborough<\/i>, but in recognition of public opinion, one of its remotely controlled submersible vehicles would be named according to the popular poll.\u00a0 Wikipedia\u00a0notes<\/a>:\u00a0 “Observers of contemporary culture coined the term ‘McBoatfacing’, defined as ‘making the critical mistake of letting the internet decide things’.”<\/p>\n

One suspects the Ohio Turnpike Commission might have had that example in mind when they\u00a0announced the winners<\/a>\u00a0of their second annual “Name-a-snowplow” competition.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, the winners<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ctrl-Salt-Delete<\/strong>\u00a0by Nicole G.<\/p>\n

Blizzard Wizard<\/strong>\u00a0by Jacqueline F.<\/p>\n

Plow Chicka Plow Wow<\/strong>\u00a0by Joshua K.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re Killin\u2019 Me Squalls<\/strong>\u00a0by Linda V.<\/p>\n

The Big LePlowski<\/strong>\u00a0by Matthew S.<\/p>\n

The Blizzard of Oz<\/strong>\u00a0by Annette B.<\/p>\n

Ohio Thaw Enforcement<\/strong>\u00a0by Jonathan H.<\/p>\n

Clearopathtra\u00a0<\/strong>by Samantha S.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One plow at each of the turnpike\u2019s eight maintenance buildings will get one of the names. That includes the Amherst, Boston and Hiram facilities as well as others in Erie, Fulton, Mahoning, Ottawa and Williams counties.<\/p>\n

Each winner will receive a $100 cash gift card, according to a news release.\u00a0The commission<\/a>\u00a0got more than 5,500 entries between Oct. 24 and Nov. 20. The top 50 were put up for a public vote which ended Dec. 2 with more than 1,100 votes cast.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Heh. I love it. Back over to Peter for the wrap-up.<\/p>\n

Good on the Turnpike Authority for letting the public join in the fun, and for selecting amusing names that will make people smile. There’s all too little of that from ponderous public authorities these days.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ain’t THAT the sad, sorry truth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Never underestimate the creative ingenuity and all-round insouciance of the general public. First, the backstory: A few years ago, Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council announced a competition to name\u00a0a new research vessel.\u00a0 Given the sense of humor of the British public, it was perhaps not…<\/p>\n

Would you like to know more? Naming (un)conventions<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,20,36,90,125],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-general","category-brilliant","category-damn-thats-funny","category-real-men-of-genius","category-or-losing","wpcat-7-id","wpcat-13-id","wpcat-20-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-90-id","wpcat-125-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8764"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8767,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8764\/revisions\/8767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coldfury.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}