BS: Inappropriate company names

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Alice
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:09 AM

Gas station/convenience store chain in this region is now called Kum & Go.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Midchuck
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:14 AM

The two local chippies are 'A fine Kettle of Fish' and 'The Frying Scotsman'

I think we've discovered another word that has distinctly different meanings in the US and Britain.

I assume that in Britain it means a take-out food place...

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bernard
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:17 AM

Hah! No urban myth - Bols-Fockink Dry Gin really exists! I got the spelling slightly wrong...

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:27 AM

Bit of a stretch of the imagination but seeing as I have plenty...

Local company called R Swain. Often wondered if it the opposite of R Swax. Takes mooning to a (w)hole new level:-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Charley Noble
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:48 AM

Here in Maine my favorites include:

Dr. Kneebone - Chiropractor

Crocker & Worry - Attorneys

Blow Brothers - Portable Toilets (of course!)

Roll & Go - Sea Music Group (but Chinese Take-Out place in Lansing, Michigan)

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bizibod
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 11:52 AM

Hey ,fat B*****d,there's a "300 Spartans "chippy in Loughborough, Leicestershire ,too.
For several years I read it always as Zoo Spartans on account of the fancy writing. Seemed to make just as much sense either way....Still have absolutely no idea why a chippy should be so called, am I missing something obvious ?

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 12:08 PM

There was a Dr. Boozer in West Allis, Wisconsin (west 'burb of Milwaukee) back in the '60s. He was a dentist. I think I still have his business card around somewhere.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 01:13 PM

There's a chain of Turkish shops selling fridges, air-con, etc, called 'Arcelik'. (Celik means steel, I believe.) The French drink lemonade called 'Pschitt'.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 01:15 PM

Dr. Twocock, chiropractor. Hardi saw it in Canadia.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST,LEJ
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 02:13 PM

Drving through Joplin Missouri, you can see a laerge industrial building with 20 foot high illuminated red letters saying FAG. I don't know what the product is, but I can imagine the poor rep sitting in some company lobby while the receptionist tells the owner "the FAG guy is here to see you."

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: robomatic
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 03:12 PM

In my business there's a common expression from shortening the term: "power generation" to powergen. Apparently there was (briefly) a web site called: powergen.italia

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: fat B****rd
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 03:24 PM

Haha ! Bizibod. Somebody noticed. The answer is that they were "battered in Greece"

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bert
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 04:48 PM

"battered in Greece" LOL, good one. Though they did plenty of battering themselves.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: frogprince
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 05:02 PM

Again, not exactly a company name, but in 1964, in the mess hall at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Maryland, we put big "bladders" of milk, in cardboard cartons, in dispensers for the troops. The boxes were labled "HOMO VD, SKAGSVILLE, MD."

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bizibod
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 05:52 PM

Battered in Greece ! Uproarious laughter! A most satisfactory explanation ! Thanks for that.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: John O'L
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 06:02 PM

My sister-in-law ran a home-delivery curry business for a while, called "Curries On The Trot".

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 06:03 PM

'Chippies' used to sell mainly fish and chips - but gradually also other (non-chain) fast food takeaways. They are always independently owned small outlets.

"Charley Noble"

ROFL...


There was a diving supplies shop called "Come Diving"

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Anne Lister
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 06:22 PM

On good names for chippies .. my all time favourite is "A Fish Called Rhondda", up in the Rhondda valleys (Treorchy, I think), although the Codfather comes a good second.

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Deckman
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 06:42 PM

This is a TRUE story. I couldn't make it up ... though I wished I had.

About ten years ago, in Everett, Washington (USA) they started building a large multi-story building across from my bank. For several weeks, we all wondered what they were "UP" to. Finally, came the very large sign: "This Building Is Being Built By The ERECTION COMPANY! WE GET IT UP FOR YOU!"

The day that sign went up, all the tellers in my bank were chortleing over it, and pointing it out to a few customers.

True story! It made the papers (mostly letters to the editor) and local TV. It turns out that this Bellevue based company get's lot's of mileage with that slogan. CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: s&r
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 06:57 PM

"Gay Photographic Supplies" predated the current usage of the word. They changed it because the phone calls became more and more off topic

Stu

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Linda Goodman Zebooker
Date: 25 Nov 06 - 08:22 PM

An inadvertent name... The Swifton Shopping Center in Cincinnati Ohio was the first shopping mall I ever saw. It had a supermarket (the first one in town) and even a couple of outdoor kiddie rides, like helicopters, that you could ride for a dime. Quite a lively place! After a few years, some neglect started to manifest itself. The big neon sign began to say

Swifto hopping Center

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Nov 06 - 04:19 AM

A litle takeaway shop - like a chippie but sold a wider range of quick foods, a bit like a cross with a deli -

The Taik Hawaii

(try the Aussie nasal accent)...

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Grab
Date: 26 Nov 06 - 05:51 AM

A friend had a very scary lecturer at uni. His name, appropriately, was Dr Fear.

One that kept us amused for a while on a school trip was noticing an electrical appliance shop in Austria called "Electrodick".

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Anne Lister
Date: 26 Nov 06 - 07:49 AM

Of course language vagaries help ... I remember a self-service shop dealing in Kickers in Lyon, France (where I was living at the time) which had a big neon sign that read "Kick Self" ...on the same street as a self-service restaurant that advertised "Grill Self".

Anne

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST,John Gray in Oz
Date: 26 Nov 06 - 11:48 AM

A company I deal with in Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory, is called ;
Territory.
Instrument.
Testing.
Services.

JG/FME

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Grab
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 06:25 PM

Can't believe I forgot the surprisingly successful British electronic equipment manufacturer, "Wayne Kerr".

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 06:33 PM

My village policemen were PC Crook and PC Pinches...

Really!!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Desdemona
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 06:49 PM

I once stayed in a motel where my car was parked next to a panel truck sporting the legend "Acme Erectors: Our Erections Are Hard To Beat"!

~D

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Melani
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 10:20 PM

Phuket Thai restaurant in San Francisco is always a big favorite, though I'm told it IS pronounced differently.

But the absolutely all-time best is still the First Unitarian Church of Kensington, which for obvious reasons changed its name to the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, the fact that it is actually located in Kensington notwithstanding.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: JennyO
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 10:38 PM

Coming home last night, I saw a sign on a shop:

PARIS PEARL         INTERNATIONAL EYEBROW SHAPING CHAMPION

They have competitions for that?

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: frogprince
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 10:41 PM

Once again, I suppose I'm brain-dead and missing the obvious;
   
   First Unitarian Church of Kensington...

   First Unitarian Church of Kensington...

                               ??

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Midchuck
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 10:53 PM

The initials, if you leave out the "of"...

You have to be familiar with both British and US word usages to appreciate this, but a friend of my daughters, when she was in England, had a picture taken of herself pointing, with an expression of shock and terror, at a large signboard advertising a furniture moving company.

The name was "Beaver Removals."

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bert
Date: 27 Nov 06 - 10:54 PM

Initials Frogprince!!

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 06:01 AM

bert, that only means anything
For Us Clever Kids....

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Tootler
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 06:58 AM

Many years ago, Burroughs Wellcome in Dartford, Kent had a neon sign on their works with several lights failed so that it read "roughs Welcome"

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: JennyO
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 07:51 AM

The car yard next door to where I get my car repaired is called TRUSTED CARS, but the unfortunate placement of a large pole as you approach it, means that the sign appears to say "RUSTED CARS".

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 07:59 AM

There's a local business (and I'm sure the name is a family name) where the sign always strikes me giggly --

"Just Oil and More"

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Becca72
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 09:00 AM

We have a "Curl up and dye" hair salon in Old Orchard Beach, Maine which was obviously stolen from the Blues Brothers.

I also like Sam 'n Ella's Deli in Portland, Maine and Blow Brothers port-a-potties whose slogan is "we're #1 in the #2 business".

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: frogprince
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 10:24 AM

"First Unitarian..."
I knew I'd kick myself after I had to ask to get it...

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 12:25 PM

Sam & Ella's Diner

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bizibod
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 07:15 PM

Ewan Burns   Tanning Salon
That's what it says across the fascia. Really inspires confidence ,no ?!

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 28 Nov 06 - 07:27 PM

I was wondering about the 300 spartans myself. I was trying to turn Thermopylae into " The ???? fry"

Cryptic crosswords are not good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Dazbo
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 03:35 AM

There is (was) a Sam 'n' Ella's in Sheffield too.

A driving school near my parents was Impact.

Some chippies in Sheffield

A Salt and Battered
NOrthern Sole
Manfryday

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Dazbo
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 03:41 AM

Pressed submit too early:-(

Codrophenia
Codfather
Chip 'n' Scales
Tasty Plaice
The Contented Sole
The Friary
Fishnet

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 08:09 AM

Found a company called FU Ltd yesterday... That's one that got through the censors!

Squeaky

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: redsnapper
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 08:19 AM

There used to be a cobbler in the King's Road, Chelsea, called
R. Soles

I've seen a second-hand clothes shop in France or Belgium (I can't remember which) called "Look Fifty"

I seem to remember an Asian firm of solicitors (lawyers) in the UK called Sumat Zupeer & Co

RS

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST,redhorse at work
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 08:20 AM

Three of my favourites:
From Sutton Coldfield: "The Wylde Green Florist"
For Shiney New Row near Newcastle, the Electrical goods shop "Shiney New Appliances"
And the late lamented "Brownhills Effluent Disposal"

nick

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 08:55 AM

Once sailed on a canal boat, past a sanitary ware manufacturer by the name of J K Shufflebottom....

Squeaky

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: Donuel
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 09:22 AM

Poise & Ivy - a preppy boutique

Subject: RE: BS: Inappropriate company names
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 09:45 AM

Chinese takeaway - Wok This Way