Adventures in Naming…
One can’t choose one’s parents– nor the name with which those parents endow one. So one is stuck with the initials that come in the bargain. (Your not-too-foresightful correspondent’s daughter, for instance, has the monogram “EWW”)
The founders of corporations and not-for-profits, however, can– and in this age of Twitter- and SMS-inspired compression, surely should– try to avoid the sorts of unfortunate double entendre created by the examples in Mental Floss’ “Initials That Meant More Than They Realized.”
As we apply ourselves anew to appellation, we might recall that it was on this date in 1939 that New York City’s 5,200-seat Hippodrome Theater closed its doors for the last time. Built in 1905, the Hippodrome was for a time the largest and most successful theater in New York, featuring lavish spectacles replete with elephants and other circus animals, diving horses, opulent sets, 500-strong choruses, and the most popular vaudeville artists of the day.
Harry Houdini and friend, performing at the Hippodrome (source: Library of Congress)