Opposite Land

The other day I participated in a conference call. It was not particularly interesting in any way. I noticed, when I dialed in my special access code, that the name of the conference call company was "Raindance." A canned female voice said the word "Raindance" and then there was a beep or something that let you know you were admitted to the conference call.

I can't think of anything less evocative of a rain dance than a conference call. Can you? It seems to me like a shameful and sad thing to take a word that's so romantic and rich with smell and sensation and make it into the name for a company that sets up conference calls. Another small dulling of the senses.

Comments

[Patti]

Boy do I ever agree with you on that one!

[Sheila]

But you must admit that's more interesting than having to use a series of numbers to access the teleconference call.... sabcm

[Hal]

I agree. Le Carré tends to use things like housing developments. Perfect Spy has "Wentworth" as a big-deal code name -- "Are you Wentworth cleared?"

I remember the tale of the kid who stashed all the stuff he wanted to hide from his parents in a folder labelled "algebra" on the family computer -- because they'd never look there. Most code names should be the same way. Utterly pedestrian.