This blog recently registered a hit from Niceville, Florida.
Intrigued by the name - Niceville should really be a fictional town name used in a Superman script or a childrens fable (where the neighbouring town would be called Meanieville) - I did a bit of googling.
It was previously named Boggy Bayou, but the name was changed to attract more tourists.
Admittedly, Niceville is a marginal improvement on Boggy Bayou - but so too is Moderately Damp Bayou. Unless a town was originally called Murderville, renaming it Niceville probably isn't likely to result in a drastic rise in tourism. A bit like the Australian national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair", Niceville doesn't set the bar of expectation particularly high. (Would The Nice Canyon, The Nice Wall of China or The Nice Barrier Reef receive as many visitors as their great and grand counterparts?)
Mrs. Bradshaw, my Leaving Cert English teacher, absolutely forbade us to use the word nice in essays, maintaining that constant overuse in everyday conversation made it one of the tamest, least descriptive adjectives available. We could, she said, use it as a proper noun but she would prefer the absence of adjectives to the presence of the word nice.
They had carte blanche - the could have pushed the boat out and picked the type of place name that kicks you in the shin and demands you pay it a visit. That they didn't, instead favouring a cautious, conservative option, probably tells more about the towns folk than the new name ever could
If my Niceville reader ever returns, may I suggest the following alternatives...
- Fantabulousville
- Freeliqourville
- Drunkandeasysinglesville
4 comments:
I'm going, that's all there is to it, I'm going......
Steakandoralsexville.
Just rolls off the tounge (so to speak), doesn't it.
When I was in first year of secondary school our religion teacher got us to anonymously write something positive about every member of our class- and also forbade the use 'nice'.
No way! Boggy Bayou was a much better name.
Niceville. Phthoo!
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