Should a thing’s name tell you what the thing is?
by Joe Fitzgerald
Language is screwed.
The purpose of language, communication, has been sacrificed on the altar of who-knows-what, in the interests of promoting your-guess-is-as-good-as-mine.
My favorite current example is the Navigation Center at an unnamed city in the Central Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
Public Works, perhaps. Making street signs more readable? There are of course rules – federal, state, vegetable, and mineral – about those signs. The fonts are detailed, perhaps not quite into the advanced section of the Microsoft Word fonts panel, but perhaps requiring a separate center to keep track of and navigate the rules? We’re using “perhaps” and the question mark a lot here. That’s because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with street signs, or fonts.
Maybe it has something to do with coordinating the city’s computer systems with MapQuest. Those who’d argue that MapQuest has been supplanted by Google and Apple maps may be surprised to learn that it’s still around. Not that it matters, because the Navigation Center has nothing to do with maps.
Buses, maybe? (We’ve switched from “perhaps” to “maybe” but the language mystery is no closer to being solved.) Navigation Center could be a facility to plan more efficient bus routes. Except it’s not.
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