Be nice to Harvard (at least be creative)

[Josh '99]

[quote ajec1][quote billhoward] The networks are always suckers for signs that use the network acronym, like (this is about as meek as could be) ...
C ornell
S oars
T o
V ictory
(now fix our webcasts, please)

[/quote]

Don't be that guy...no one likes that guy. Anyone caught with a sign similar to this should be accosted by the entire faithful. Nothing says, "I'm a moron, put me on tv" like making a sign using the letters of the network.[/quote]I couldn't have said that better myself.

[A-19]

"Too many A's in Section O" on a sign?

[canuck89]

I like it.

[Rich S]

It actually is Torino.  It's in Italy, respect that and their language.  Who cares that NBC is an American network?

Does it have to be "all about US?"

[Trotsky]

That's not the point.  For the US audience, it's Turin, in the same way that every Olympics has been the English equivalent of the site name.  If you're broadcasting to a 90% Spanish-speaking audience in west texas, call it whatever Turin is in Spanish.

At the site itself, *of course* it's the native language, and the site officials are perfectly justified in telling the US to go pound sand.

NBC is calling it "Torino" in order to appear more exotic and exciting, not out of geopolitical sensitivity.  It's just a dumb marketing gimmick.

[ugarte]

[quote Trotsky]NBC is calling it "Torino" in order to appear more exotic and exciting, not out of geopolitical sensitivity.  It's just a dumb marketing gimmick.[/quote]Not just a marketing gimmick. Unlike in past Olympics, the IOC allowed Turin to use its Italian name it its own branding (evem though it is officially the site is Turin). Past host cities were required by the IOC to use the English name. I don't doubt that NBC jumped on the opportunity to glam up their own marketing but I don't blame Torino for wanting to use their own name.

And Rich, do you have an attitude other than sneering?

[Trotsky]

[quote ugarte]And Rich, do you have an attitude other than sneering?[/quote]

To be fair to Rich, that was self-righteous posturing, not sneering.

[Killer]

Someone in the band should hold up a sign putting the word "Sucks" on a musical scale between the repeat symbols, along the lines of:

|| : Sucks : ||

The mathematically inclined could do Sucks squared (is there a way to do superscripts here instead of just Sucks^2?)

And to thwart the censors, "Harvard Harvard"

Oops. Meant to hang this off the top message, not the Turin/Torino discussion.  Oh well, Sucks still sucks.

[billhoward]

Torino? Turin? We Americans used to call the places whatever we felt like. Sometime in past 50 years, John Wayne checked out and we agreed to call banana republic countries, typically the ones that had oil or took hostages or were far-right or far left-leaning but not completely gone, whatever they wanted to be called ... but we never went back and applied the same courtesy, or suck-up standard, to our old friends and occasional sparring partners Germany, Italy, Sweden, Belgium, etcetera. Nobody's crying out for us to say Lydhveldidh Island instead of Iceland. But Ceylon is now Sri Lanka or the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, which is why UN speeches take so long and are also probably inaccurate. NBC ought to be consistent and either say Turin/Italy or Torino/Italia but not mix and match. They're still in mourning over the loss of Michelle Kwan, so we shouldn't bother them over this trifle.

Here's the CIA's list to what countries want to be called: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/fields/2142.html

[nyc94]

[quote Beeeej]Y'know, Bill, there are some decaffeinated brands on the market now that taste just like the real thing.

Beeeej[/quote]

Bonus points for an excellent reference to Real Genius.

[Trotsky]

The primary purpose of language is communications, not politics (Derrida and Foucault having long been burned on the trash heap of pseudo-intellectualist history for everyone except career graduate students). Hayastan, Zhongguo, and Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk give me no information.  Armenia, China, and North Korea do.

[ugarte]

[quote Trotsky]The primary purpose of language is communications, not politics (Derrida and Foucault having long been burned on the trash heap of pseudo-intellectualist history for everyone except career graduate students). Hayastan, Zhongguo, and Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk give me no information.  Armenia, China, and North Korea do.[/quote]

So then your big objection to Torino is that it is confusing?

[Trotsky]

[quote ugarte]

So then your big objection to Torino is that it is confusing?[/quote]

My objection to NBC calling its coverage "Torino" is that it's an affectation, like my teenage Anglo daughter trying to build her ethnic street cred by ordering a "burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrito."  To erect a facade of authenticity is by definition inauthentic.  NBC spends all its coverage cramming the mind-numbingly mawkish trivia of every US athlete's life story into our eyes because nobody could possibly be interested in the performances of non-US athletes.  For them to play the multicult card is a joke.

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Trotsky][quote ugarte]

So then your big objection to Torino is that it is confusing?[/quote]

My objection to NBC calling its coverage "Torino" is that it's an affectation, like my teenage Anglo daughter trying to build her ethnic street cred by ordering a "burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrito."[/quote]

Well, NBC is the network of Bob Cohssss-tahssss.  ("There's no way the Brrrrroncos will beat Sandiejo ... een Torino!")

[jtwcornell91]

[quote Trotsky]NBC is calling it "Torino" in order to appear more exotic and exciting, not out of geopolitical sensitivity.  It's just a dumb marketing gimmick.[/quote]

Actually, what I find amusing is hearing people say "Torino" with an American accent, including the distinctly non-Italian r.