31st
What’s In a Name?
Wrong, and wrong. Before it was a movie title, “Cool runnings” was a common Jamaican expression meaning “Have a safe trip” or “Bon voyage.” And the phrase “A time to kill” appeared in the Bible (Ecclesiastes 3:3) well before John Grisham appeared as our saviour. (It’s also in that lousy Pete Seeger/Byrds song “Turn! Turn! Turn!”) You’re welcome. —Professor Know It AllNames seem to have little to do with success, as demonstrated by Now That’s What I Call Music, a name so bad that it sounds like one of the rejects for Gee, Now These Are Some Really Great Tunes. Take this Jamaican cuisine place near a gym I go to. It’s called Cool Runnings, like the 1993 John Candy Bobsledding vehicle. If they choose the name only because it’s related to Jamaica, why not go with something more people know of, like Bob Marley or Reggae? In terms of things I associate with Jamaica, John Candy is not even in the Cool Runnings for top 10.
And while the logic behind Cool Runnings is obvious, I can’t say the same for A Time To Kiln, a make your own pottery place named after the 1996 adaptation of John Grisham’s A Time To Kill, which tells the story, as Wikipedia succinctly puts it, of “the rape of a young girl and the subsequent arrest and assassination of the rapists by the girl’s father” and his ensuing trial. In terms of things I associate with kilns, rape is not even in the Cool Runnings for top 10. It’s like a speech therapist naming their office Schindler’s Lisp.
