Read this in the local paper this morning, I love it!
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/09/27/news/local/news05.txtMissoula County officials not LOL at street signs
By CHELSI MOY of the Missoulian
Shakespeare's Juliet famously wonders: What's in a name?
Come to find out, a lot.
Missoula County learned that lesson the hard way when it inadvertently approved a road name that basically told folks where to stick it. (Yikes!)
*
Tom Porter was more than a little miffed with Missoula County for making him go through subdivision review to put a trailer on his property, and then for making him install fire sprinklers in it.
Also by order of the county, Porter had to name the forever-nameless road leading up to his house. His address had always been Pulp Mill Road.
So Porter creatively chose SIUYA Lane, insisting that it meant a Japanese flower.
However, a Google search of the name doesn't produce frilly photos of small delicate plants, but rather, a popularly used insult in the texting world. (Look it up for yourself.)
The road sign wasn't up one day before neighborhood kids stole it. Teenagers eventually revealed to parents the meaning.
It's been a big shock to us, said Anita Hansen, who lives nearby and has her mail forwarded to a P.O. box now because she's so embarrassed. I'm laid back, but that to me is so distasteful.
Complaints by neighbors living on the road caused the county to investigate further, turning to the trustworthy online Urban Dictionary.
Commissioners, we are in the Internet age, said Tim Elsea, assistant public works director on Thursday in a meeting with the Missoula Board of County Commissioners.
Porter claims ignorance to the meaning of the popular acronym. Yet he's not the slightest bit embarrassed by his blooper, either. The definition accurately represents his frustrations with the county.
It worked out really good, Porter said.
When asked about his fascination with Japanese flowers, Porter responded: I don't know.
As text messaging becomes a more mainstream form of communication, the county felt it appropriate to adopt a new policy that allows public works employees to deny any offensive or inappropriate road names after consulting Urban Dictionary or other common Internet references.
I text, but I spell all the words out, offered Commissioner Jean Curtiss at Thursday's meeting.
But it's not just inappropriate acronyms that have slipped by the county.
County Attorney Mike Sehestedt remembers a time when a Potomac landowner proposed to change the name of a county road to Hooter Lane - referring to owls, of course. But the father of four daughters living on the road quickly quashed that idea, he said.
Therefore, the new policy also includes words with double meanings.
BTW ( By the way in text language), what does Porter want to name the road now? He's sticking with the Japanese-flower theme and has proposed fuyou.
Which really is a flower.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at
chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
