On Tue, 23 Nov 1999, Molly Van Meter wrote:

> Dare I mention the law firm from my dad's hometown in Indiana?
> Holder, Heiney & Raper

I'm skeptical.  However, I also assumed that "Dewey, Cheetham & Howe" (the
law firm mentioned at the end of every episode of "Car Talk" on public
radio) was a joke.

Then I saw their offices in Cambridge, Mass. last summer.

Other unfortunate firm names include the law firm "Harness, Dickey &
Pierce" (they advertise heavily on public radio here by sponsoring all the
news programs) and the merged accounting firm "Deloitte & Touche"
(proonounced "de-LOYT and toosh", or, if you don't like them, "TOY-let and
doosh").

The folks over at alt.folklore.urban long ago documented the real
historical existence of a prominent Indianapolis attorney who was named
"Donald Duck"; his law firm was the friendly-sounding Duck & Neighbors.
Mr. Duck was born under that name around 1900 and died around 20 years
ago; from his standpoint, the creation of the cartoon character must have
been a horrible accident of fate.

Branching out a bit into street names, a particular interest of mine --
see my brief history of street naming at potifos.com/streetname.html --
the prize for the weirdest street name goes to a street in Birmingham,
Alabama, named "Booger Hollow".  It disappeared from the zip code
directory about 15 years ago, so it was probably changed to something
innocuous.

This is the example I use to prove that street names are not irrelevant.
Given a choice between two otherwise identical houses for sale, one of
which was priced 10% less but entailed an address on "Booger Hollow",
which would you choose?

Some thrifty folk will still primly insist that they would go for the best
deal regardless of the street name.  But most will admit that they'd pay
tens of thousands of dollars more for a house rather than live on "Booger
Hollow."  Of course, a few say: "Are you kidding?  I'd pay MORE for a
great address like that!"

---
Lawrence Kestenbaum, [log in to unmask]
The Political Graveyard, http://politicalgraveyard.com