Thursday, November 7, 2024
What's in a Name? That Which We Call a Home for the Aged, Would it Smell as Sweet?
I am currently working on a project where a proper title for "homes for the aged" is a topic of debate.
I've been amused by attempts to tackle this topic over the years. For example, I discovered that in 1948, readers of the Kensington News in the Notting Hill area of London -- yes, that Notting Hill -- were enlisted to make suggestions for a new name for a local "Home for the Aged Poor." The solicitation was suggested by a mayor who remarked after "seeing the happy contented faces of the inhabitants and the light and cheerful premises," that a better name was needed and he offered to "award a guinea book-token for the best suggestion received."
Readers took to the task with apparent zeal. My research has not yet revealed the winner, but each week the newspaper ran multiple suggestions -- ranging from quirky to, I assume, ironic in nature. Some of my favorites?
"The Anchorage." "Dunromin,"and "The Welcome Home."
The most common suggestion that I read in one week's list seemed to be variations on "Twilight" -- but back then there was no connection to the teen-vampire romance series of book and movie fame that might have at least lightened that identity.
Okay -- time to get back to my Fulbright project.
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/elder_law/2024/11/whats-in-a-name-that-which-we-call-a-home-for-the-aged-would-it-smell-as-sweet-.html