Two Things: What’s in a name?; Beware the ‘master plan’ and help on the way for leaf pickup

Happy Friday Eve. Don’t forget the sunblock.

It always seemed silly, this on-again, off-again ‘dispute’ over the name of Winston-Salem Dash.

Grammarians and sticklers have argued since the great rebranding in 2008 that the name was just plain wrong.

It’s a hyphen, not a dash, in the city’s name, so score the club’s nickname ‘E-management.’

Historians, politicians and slackers — by no means mutually exclusive — countered simply: Blow it out your piehole, Sparky.

The sticklers, by the way, are correct.

A hyphen joins two or more words such as, say, Winston and Salem. A dash separates words into ‘parenthetical statements,’ whatever those might be.

(Just so you know, I had to look that up. I couldn’t remember the difference; I attended a state school in a nearby city whose name rhymes with “Beans Roar.” It was a simpler time when the legal drinking age was 18, kegs in the dorms were encouraged and essays penned in ‘blue books.’)

People are also reading…

Anyhow, the great Hyphen v Dash ‘debate’ spills back into the public domain this morning at a news conference with Mayor Allen Joines and team management.

There was indeed a small uproar when the franchise dropped “Warthogs” in favor of the Dash, which management pulled from a list of five finalists named in a public poll.

Aviators, Racers, Rhinos and Wallbangers were the other four. Camels, a natural, didn’t make the cut.

(Personally, I always liked the alliterative effect married with the animal kingdom: Winston-Salem Warthogs and Greensboro Grasshoppers, to name two.)

“What a load. I can’t believe that a DASH will now be a part of the great history of baseball in Winston,” wrote an online backbencher in 2008.

Kevin Mortesen, a spokesman for the team at the time, said that the distinction was silly.

“We realize that it isn’t grammatically correct,” he said. “But a baseball stadium isn’t the place where you always hear the best grammar. And the hyphen didn’t lend itself to as good a logo as a dash did.”

The guess here is that revisiting an argument over a punctuation mark adds up to celebrating 15 years of a unique name that underscores an old saw: there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Besides, no matter what the team had decided, the choice was always going to fall short of the all-time king of minor-league nicknames: the Macon Whoopees of the Southern Hockey League.

Precursor to bond referendum?

GREENSBORO – The e-mail seemed innocuous enough.

City officials hired an outside firm to assist with a survey called the “Greensboro Aquatics Facilities Master Plan.”

On paper — an electronic link actually — it sought input from the community about the city’s pools and splash pads. Hence the name.

“Our swimming pools and spraygrounds are valued and impactful facilities within our park system. The community input that we received in developing this plan has been crucially important in shaping recommendations for the future of our aquatic facilities,” said Parks and Recreation Director Phil Fleischmann in a new release. “More than 1,800 individuals offered feedback through engagement processes. We encourage you to share your comments regarding the draft plan with us.”

As anyone who’s ever spent more than 10 minutes reading a municipal budget can tell you, “Master Plan” is government-speak for “Wish List.”

Indeed, this one calls for adding new pools and money to upgrade existing facilities.

It may also turn out to be a precursor to a future bond referendum. Pools and parks aren’t getting built without direct citizen approval outside the regular budget process.

The next step in a lengthy process will be a Parks and Recreation Commission public comment session in June.

Leaf pickup help

WINSTON-SALEM — Don’t look now but the City Council took a tentative step toward solving one of the greatest problems of the modern era: Slow leaf pickup.

Council approved the purchase of new leaf loaders and hoist trucks for a cool $1.5 million.

Lagging collections in the fall and early winter that left piles of rotting vegetation on neighborhood streets drove segments of the city positively batty.

“While I understand the response has been to blame staff shortages and other issues not within the city’s control, I was dismayed to see the city send a street sweeper truck to my neighborhood last week before a leaf-removal truck. Taxpayers deserve a review of this department,” one resident wrote in a letter to the editor.

While some might scoff and suggest that city time — and money —would be better spent on, say, gun violence and public safety, we submit that officials can walk and chew gum at the same time.

ssexton@wsjournal.com

336-727-7481

@scottsextonwsj

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