What's in a name?�

2002-06-27

In my daily life I have to deal with lots of health care facilities. LOTS of health care facilities. One of the things that helps to keep me from being bored out of my skull to look at the names of all the people and places and think what it would be like to be/live with that name. My apologies (and sympathies) to those who have it, but if my last name was 'Slutsky' I'd change it. I can't imagine being the patient of 'Dr. Slutsky' either.

I don't think that being a woman living in the city of 'Manlius' would be all that much fun, although there other city names just as bad. I thought that the name 'Aiea' was a joke. Then I saw that it was in Hawaii. They always tend to have a surplus of vowels. And where the heck did the name 'Baraboo' come from. That one sounds like a joke, too. 'Bemidji'? 'Blue Island' sounds like it would be tranquil place to live. Why in the world would anyone name a city 'Concrete'? Ditto 'Festus'. A city named 'Cut Off'? That sounds like an accident of road building. Mmm, 'Gassaway'? Sounds like a patent medicine. 'Friendship' sounds like it would be a nice place. 'Horseshoe Bend'. Do all the cowboys live there? 'Hurricane'. I'd worry about living there if it was on the coast somewhere, but it's in Utah. Not many hurricanes there. Enough for one day.

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