A link of my own to kick things off: I wrote for the Strong Language blog about a product name I was surprised (to put it mildly) to encounter in a family-owned, family-friendly grocery store in Berkeley, California.
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I also continue to publish about once a week on Medium, a platform that actually pays me! This week’s story is about Pepsi’s new logo—and the logo that preceded it, back in 2008 (friend link), which the branding agency sold with a totally bonkers presentation. If you’re not a Medium member, use this referral link to join. Yes, there’s a fee, but you’ll gain access to lots of other good writers, too. And maybe you’ll want to start publishing there yourself, and you’ll be glad you made this tiny investment.
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For more than a century, the New York Times’s nameplate included a period. Then, one day in 1961, it was gone. “Dropping the period caused much consternation and soul-searching at the Times, until finally the production manager came up with the calculation that eliminating the period would save some $600 a year in ink!” (Steven Heller for Print Magazine)
The final full stop?
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Snap, crackle, flop: KELLANOVA, Kellogg’s name for its new spinoff, “bears an odd similarity to Casanova and Villanova. And while the Latin [nova]word may technically speak to newness, the use of nova is about as fresh as those air-soaked Frosted Flakes lost in the depths of your pantry.” (Catchword Branding for Medium)
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3-year-old called a pinwheel a "flower popsicle"
— Steph Campisi (@stephcampisi) March 28, 2023
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How please stopped being polite. “The word can brilliantly convey anger, irony, passive aggression, condescension, formality, or desperation—all without a hint of true politeness.” (Walter Mimms for The Atlantic)
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David Attenborough narrates the great Twitter migration. (Sauleha for Medium)
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Two takes on woke:
“How do you define a word like ‘woke’? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?” (Jeff Maurer and Thomas Chatterton Williams for the I Might Be Wrong podcast—audio, first 10 minutes or so, although the rest is interesting, too.)
And if you prefer print, here’s TCW again with “You Can’t Define Woke”: “The word is more confusing than useful, and we should make good-faith efforts to avoid using it.” (Thomas Chatterton Williams in The Atlantic)
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Why are all action heroes named Jack, James, or John, or, occasionally, Jason? “As a data researcher, I had to get to the bottom of it. What followed was months of categorizing hundreds of action movies, consulting experts in the field of name studies, reviewing academic papers and name databases, and seeking interviews with authors and screenwriters as to the rationale behind their naming decisions. It turned out I had only scratched the surface.” (Demetria Glace for Slate)
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Meet me in Hot Buttered Rum: How to approach conference room naming. (Ben Weis for Field Notes from A Hundred Monkeys)
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A periodic table of rejected element names. I’m especially fond of “pandemonium.” (Andy Brunning for Compound Interest, via Language Hat)
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Moomins and the naming genius of Tove Jansson (1914–2001), the Finnish writer and artist who created “a fictional family of white, smooth, round characters with large snouts who live in Moominvalley”—and who have names like Snufkin, Fillyjonk, Hattifatteners, and The Groke. (Ali Zell for the Zinzin blog)
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The tourism agency for the city of Regina, Saskatchewan, wanted to have a little fun with the pronunciation of its name, but ended up conceding that “Show Us Your Regina” went a little too far. (CBC; hat tip MJF)
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