Battered shrimp, anyone?
Walking to meet a friend for lunch yesterday, I saw a truck labeled "S&M Food Services." Yes, they're real; that's what happens, I guess, when you decide not to hire one of them fancy-schmancy naming consultants to name your business. They even have "S&M Vending Machines"!
Their website promises the customer:
* Vast selection of regular and specialty goods * Full line of complimentary products * State-of-the-art equipment * Rapid response service policy
Doesn't that spark your imagination! A good Valentine's Day alternative for those for whom chocolates are just too .... vanilla.
(Another entertaining food-company name, which I similarly encountered walking to work many years ago, is the Puritan Ice Cream Company. That may not turn a native New Englander's head, but it sure sounded odd to this Midwesterner. I started a contest with some of my friends come up with the best Puritan ice cream flavors--I forget all of them, but some of the better entries were Straight & Narrow Rocky Road, Chocolate Mather, Sorbet in the Hands of an Angry God, and of course Preachers & Cream.)
Who is Miss Conduct?
Robin Abrahams writes the weekly "Miss Conduct" column for The Boston Globe Magazine. Robin, who has a PhD in psychology from Boston University, has worked as a theater publicist, organizational-change communications manager, editor, stand-up comedian, and professor of psychology and English. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, Marc Abrahams, founder of the Ig Nobel Prizes, which are given annually for achievements that first make people laugh and then make them think.
