¿Qué esta en un nombre?
My discussion last night of The House, the Little Rock restaurant that is, in fact, not your house and therefore a pain in the ass to discuss as a meeting point, prompted the inestimable Jonathan Katz to e-mail me a note and accompanying photos from the Caribbean. Apparently this homonymous business naming is a global problem.
He writes:
Re the confusingly named restaurant in Little Rock, there is a funny if oppositely intentioned analogue on Hispaniola.
On the outskirts of Santo Domingo, entrepreneurs set up small, pay-by-hour motels chiefly for the purpose of doing it. While some customers are legitimate couples looking for a few moments away from a house filled with every living relative they have, most are used by Dominican working men for a quick abscond with the mistress, secondary mistress, or ever-popular "girl you just met."
As a service to customers, the owners of these establishments give them names that, even if accidentally dropped into conversation, will either reveal nothing or create confusion. I've attached two pictures here. The first place is "Aki," which when read aloud is the Spanish word for "here." (As in, Q: "Baby I've been calling all day. Where are you?" A: "Here.") Next door is "Allí," or "over there." And finally we have, of course, "The Office." If only.
JMK
Comments
something about this post made me want to be engaging in a covert assignation in some crappy hotel in the Dominican Republic. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!