Come on, Akron. Why is that sign still up?
I’m talking about the brown-and-white one on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard that claims the next exit will take motorists to the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Sure, it will — as long as they keep driving southeast for 350 more miles to Alexandria, Va.
Akron’s National Inventors Hall of Fame went belly-up in 2008. A child born that year would be going into the third grade this fall.
Even a third-grader would tell you that directing people toward something that doesn’t exist makes no sense.
With the possible exception, I suppose, of Pokemon Go.
GOOD LINE
David Fisher of Richfield was happy that LeBron got a street named after him — King James Way, aka South Main Street between Exchange to Market — but thought the city could have gone a step further.
Quipped Fisher: “LeBron didn’t get a key to the city because he already had one? Am I to believe that Mayor Horrigan didn’t have the sense to change the locks when he took office?”
OSU VS. ABJ
I riled up some OSU loyalists awhile back by taking a potshot at the propensity of its graduates to insist on calling it The Ohio State University.
Bob: I, too, have been annoyed with OSU being called “The” Ohio State. However when I checked into it, I found that its official name has been The Ohio State University for a very long time. We have shortened the name to Ohio State over the years.
Also, I see that your email address is @ THE Beacon Journal. You know what they say about glass houses.
Randy Bisbee
Hudson
Randy: Normal humans call The Ohio State University “Ohio State,” just like we call Ohio University “Ohio U.” I’m not questioning the real name, just people making a big deal about the The.
My understanding of the origin of our email address — perhaps the most cumbersome addy in the history of the internet — was the result of another organization beating us to the punch for “beacon.com.”
A recent check reveals that domain is indeed taken, snapped up in 1992 by a business owner in Ashland. Also gone is “thebeacon.com,” in use by a fancy hotel in Dublin.
But we also own “beaconjournal.com,” which we grabbed in 1994, as well as “akronbeacon.com,” acquired in 2000 — both of which are shorter. And when it comes to email addresses, shorter is better.
Nobody employed here today remembers why the decision was made or even who made it.
I suspect the culprit would have given the matter a whole lot more thought if he/she had realized in the early ’90s how pervasive email would become.
But maybe it’s not too late.
My lobbying campaign starts today: I say we switch to “akronbeacon.com,” saving us five letters.
PROPELLED TO PARADISE
Glad to see Larry Burns is having fun.
Less than a week after being shown the door at the University of Akron — walking away with a $285,000 parting gift — he tweeted “gorgeous July morning” from a fancy resort in western Michigan.
L’Arbre Croche bills itself as “the ultimate private, year-round residential, resort community offering the finest in family recreation,” including a beach, pool and tennis courts.
He kept it up, tweeting from a series of beautiful locations during a vacation that can last as long as he wants it to.
Burns will be remembered for butchering his top assignments: increasing enrollment (it plunged) and rebranding the school (the since-shuttered “Ohio’s Polytechnic University” — argh).
FROM TURNIPS
Awhile back, Frank King of Wadsworth sent a photo of a poster he encountered for an upcoming Wadsworth blood drive that would be held at Wadsworth City Hall. It was billed as a battle of “Bankers vs. Barristers.”
Cracked King: “Doomed from the start, Bob. How did the planners expect to get any blood from either group?”
Bob Dyer can be reached at 330-996-3580 or bdyer@thebeaconjournal.com. He also is on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bob.dyer.31