Fellow Stamford blogger Kevin McKeever has a great column up in the Advocate about Stamford's quest for a new nickname. As usual, he's got some very funny lines: I could dream up far sillier yet more apt mottos -- "A City Terrified of Big Box Retailers," "Caught Between the Posh and the Poor," etc. -- but I'll refrain. That's because slogans don't reinvigorate a city. You know what does? Kevin then goes on to suggest improvements that our city should be spending time refining: education, housing, and responsible development. Go, Kevin. You struck the perfect balance between humor and opinion about a serious issue.
I am not sure if our dear Stamford needs a nickname. It seems kind of wannabe to have a nickname. Greenwich doesn't have a nickname. ("Hedge Fund Central?") Darien does, but it's the unofficial "Aryan Darien" jab. I know that Danbury is called "Hat City" (I could be wrong, which proves how pointless nicknames are) and I only know that because there's a music venue with that name. Having a nickname seems like a desperate grab for an identity. And really, the identity of a place is always evolving... so let's just chill out about the nickname. Let's officially have NO nickname.
Other cities' nicknames:
Big Apple? That's kind of cool. Like you are a big apple, and I like apples!
Windy City? That's just boring.
Hotlanta. That's a cool nickname, I guess, but it's simple and obvious, which is why it's OK. And being hot is better than being windy. If it's hot, you can go swimming, and drink margaritas poolside in your bikini. If it's windy, it messes your hair up. I do concede, I've never been to Chicago, so maybe I'm not up to speed on the benefits of wind.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Stamford's Nickname: Who Cares?
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6 comments:
The thing about nicknames like "The Big Apple" is that no one from the place being nicknamed would ever be caught dead using them! If a native New Yorker walked around Manhattan talking about "The Big Apple," they'd be pegged as a Midwestern tourist and pickpocketed in "a New York minute" (another lame expression).
Besides all that, I think a nickname should come about organically based on some defining characteristic of the city and not be slapped on it as a cheap marketing tool.
And that is what it is, a cheap marketing tool!
Stamford: The City That Loves Bon Jovi
Thanks, as always, for the plug, ST. It should be noted that one line was cut from the article. It was one in which I predicted that inevitably some comic playing downtown would refer to us as "The City Where Chimps Go Beserk."
Editors - they can be a good thing.
During an ice breaker at an event where I was with a bunch of people from Stamford, we were tasked with coming up with a slogan for the city.
The winning idea...
"The Big #2"
...thankfully we were not being evaluated on our creativity.
SPAMFORD
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