![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/cardscreen.jpg\")
Who
\n makes these names up? We are convinced there is a windowless office somewhere,
\n in Heaven or Hell if not on this Earth, where
\n a squad of poor bastards is charged with making up all the names we read
\n in the newspaper or hear on television. Mostly, the names are pretty
\n good, and we hardly notice their subtle subconscious messages or artificiality,
\n but sometimes, we know not why, the made-up names in the news stand out
\n starkly either for their theatrical appropriateness or for plain bad
\n taste. Perhaps every once in a while the good shit makes it into the
\n windowless room.<\/p>\n
For example, who keeps coming up with names like Joey Buttafuco and Other cases abound, like Haitian Prime But the naming nerds outdid themselves when they assembled the current <\/p>\n Papal article from the Boston Globe<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who makes these names up? We are convinced there is a windowless office somewhere, in Heaven or Hell if not on this Earth, where a squad of poor bastards is charged with making up all the names we read in … Continue reading
\n Condoleeza Rice. These are obviously fake names. Another example is the
\n ridiculous insistence that the titular head of the World
\n Bank
\n be
\n a member
\n of the rapaciousWolf
\n Pack<\/a> – James Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz being
\n the latest examples. Isn’t that kind of rubbing our faces in it? <\/p>\n
\n Minister Gerard
\n Latortue<\/a>. Or, whoever got the idea of naming the capital of the
\n free Republic of Albania
\n Tirana<\/a>? Then there are the sorry surnames
\n of the Russian doubles team of the Elenas: Dementieva and Bovina,
\n or the equally unfortunately named Russian skater Irina
\n Slutskaya. <\/p>\n
\n College of Cardinals to "elect"
\n the next Pope.<\/a> Do they
\n expect us to believe that the two top candidates are really named Ratzinger
\n and Lustiger?
\nPynchon couldn’t have come up with more sinister names in his prime! Maybe our
\nfriend Harold the Chips Tycoon<\/a> is right, and the Pope is indeed the Anti-Christ. <\/p>\n