… leftover chicken from Nando’s Peri-Peri (there was an ugly fight, last night, over the lemon & herb sauce), and I say to him:
So there’s this town near Tacoma Washington which is on a beautiful bay – Chambers Bay. Pretty name, Chambers Bay, but the town’s name is University Place.
Silence. He’s fiddling with the toaster.
What university, you might ask — you’re supposed at this point to ask — is located in University Place? [Pause. Silence.] And that’s just it. There isn’t a university. Ain’t hide nor hair of a university. When the town was established in the 1800’s the University of Puget Sound thought it might locate there, but then it didn’t and they were stuck with the name. The US Open’s being played there in 2015, and some in the town – including the mayor – think they’d be better able to benefit from all that publicity and possible tourism and all if they were Chambers Bay instead of University Place. Easier to remember, prettier…
Mr UD responds:
Barring some truly important reason, you shouldn’t change names. The absurd fact of that name’s history is part of the lore of the town. Continuity matters. And it costs money to change the names of towns.
UD responds to Mr UD:
Yeah. The reporter interviews this very anti guy, Bill Callier: “He owns University Place Radiator, Mufflers and Brakes.”
August 21st, 2012 at 4:09PM
It is a nifty coincidence that Mr. UD was eating Peri Peri from Nando’s, as Nando’s is a South African chicken chain (with arguably the greatest tv, radio, and print adverts on earth, btw) and of course changing names of cities, universities, roads, and other places is a major point of debate in South Africa.
dcat
August 21st, 2012 at 7:25PM
dcat: Yes – the subject of name-changing, as in South Africa, is far more interesting and complex than my little tale would have it.
August 22nd, 2012 at 9:16AM
Even slightly altering names can be expensive – the California city formerly known as San Jose spent a fortune adding an accent to celebrate its Latino heritage.
Here in Massachusetts the recent name-change story has been mixed. Manchester, a fancy coastal town, became Manchester-by-the-Sea to distinguish itself from Manchester, NH. Gay Head, which has actual Indians, became Aquinnah. But civic leaders in Lynn, upset by the jingle “Lynn, Lynn, city of sin/You never come out the way you went in,” failed to change the name to Ocean Park – perhaps because that’s the least New-England-y name this side of Pagosa Springs.
August 26th, 2012 at 11:52AM
Funny. I live on University St. right by Whitman College. There is no University in Walla Walla. There is a Walla Walla University, but it’s in the next town. That town? College Place.