All signs photographed within a couple of miles of my house in Oakland, California, and guaranteed unretouched.
Woe is me! True, "ALAS" is an acronym for the organization's Spanish-language name, and the initials spell the word for "wings," pronounced "AH-lahs." It's a nice image for "self-sufficiency." But clearly ALAS is also reaching out to speakers of English, and the alas-and-alack association is anything but hopeful.
This looks to me like Domain Desperation. As in: Mattress.com--taken. CheapMattress.com--taken. ReallyCheapMattress.com--taken. Hey, what about...? I wonder how many potential customers are as put off as I am by the convergence of "dirt" and "where I lay my head at night." Trust me: there's always a domain solution that doesn't say "We give up."
A Slavic language academy? Nope: the vowel is a short one, and the establishment is a classy day spa. But the owner seems to have been oblivious to the inherent confusion. Worse, her URL is www.polishspa.com, and the site's content makes frequent reference to "the Polish lifestyle." Something festive set to a Chopin mazurka? Or long, cold winters with nothing to eat but cabbage and kielbasa? Calling the business "Polished on Piedmont" would have maintained the concept while clarifying the pronunciation.
In my early days at Stereophile, we had a Polish American business manager who had a coffee cup emblazoned "Polish and Perfect." On the editorial side of the mag, we took it as a test: Anybody who read it as "polish and perfect" was one of us; anybody who read it as a statement of ethnic pride wasn't.
Posted by: Wes Phillips | December 26, 2006 at 05:06 PM
Well, Wes, wasn't that a bit elitist of the editorial staff or are you speaking tongue-in-Czech? And what's unpolished about being Polish, anyway?
Posted by: Charles | December 26, 2006 at 06:00 PM