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Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Department of names that are probably made up

I notice these often enough that I've decided to start collecting them.  Every now and then a news story pops up where a principal's name seems suspiciously Dickensian.  A few examples:

Bobby Jindal's current Commissioner of Administration is a man called Paul Rainwater.  During the years following the Katrina flood, Rainwater worked for the Louisiana Recovery Authority in hazard mitigation.  So stories about homeowners dealing with flood issues frequently included a quote or two from Rainwater.

For many years the Louisiana State Police designated spokesperson in matters of alcohol and highway safety was Jim Champagne.

I recently discovered that LSU Ag Center employs an environmental scientist named Chris Green

And then there are the names that just sound made up such as former Assistant US Attorney Jan Mann or, names that actually probably are made up such as local artist Katrina Brees.

I'm sure I've got more of these.  Once you start to notice a couple, it's surprising how frequently they occur.  For example this week's Gambit cover story about the city's overblown preparations for the Superbowl includes comments from the NFL's point man for coordinating this event with the city.

When New Orleans hosted the big game in 2002, the city and NFL scrambled to come up with a plan following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001, which postponed the event and pushed the game into the Carnival calendar. "This time we've had a few more years to perfect the plan, not just a few months. Super Bowl XVII is a lot bigger," says Frank Supovitz, NFL vice president of special events.

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