What seems like a long time ago, when we all had a desperate need for something to laugh at before going to sleep, I learned about a new floating bridge on the Isle of Wight.
The Isle’s governing body had come up with a bright idea: let’s have a contest to name the new bridge! (I studied pictures of the bridge for a long time and pulled out a map of the Isle of Wight to understand why this large item was required. It was required — it spanned a river which cut through so much of the island cars would have to go far out of their way to get to the other part of the island. In appearance, it was more of an immobile ferry than a bridge, but I’m not a Wighter so what do I know?) (Are the islanders called Wighters or did I just insult them?)
And the winner was…Floaty McFloatface.
The council had an “oops!” moment. I don’t know what they were thinking would be a good name but Floaty McFloatface didn’t meet their standards. So they said, “Uh, well, gee. No.”
Uprising, Isle of Wight style! A petition was drawn up and lots of people signed it so the council changed its mind.
I was personally grateful to everyone on the Isle of Wight because murmuring, “Floaty McFloatface” to myself before I went to sleep (during the Trump horror) made me unafraid to close my eyes.
Floaty McFloatface produced a lot of laughs for me over the next few years.
Now comes the State of Minnesota, rolling into Floaty McFloatface territory with a name-our-new-snowplows contest.
Among the winners are F. Salt Fitzgerald, Darth Blader and Snowbi Wan Kenobi.
But what was the biggest winner? Plowy McPlowFace. Of course, of course.