AC Capehart/Name vs Description

Created Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:24:00 +0000 Modified Thu, 14 Oct 2021 14:31:47 +0000
233 Words

I’m pretty sure there’s a name for this — the discord between the name of something being an inaccurate description. You know several government examples like “The clean air act” or the “defense department”. Yesterday morning on my commute, I had a moment of disconnect until I realized that distinction again. I saw a van a lane or two over with a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge on it, and in big letters, “Bridge Painters.” I thought “Huh, well, I guess someone’s gotta paint them.” And then I saw the sub-text: “Residential and Commercial” and I thought “Ha! Yeah, right. ‘Residential bridges’.” And only just after that did it occur to me that Bridge Painters was only a name, and not also a description.