#633 Jaunty Exec

Oh, the law of unintended consequences. What an interesting time it is when the world catches up to the best of intentions.
Recently I was glad when it was more or less decided that the City of Olympia was going to put its new city hall downtown. There was talk for a while that the new facility would be on Port property, pretty much right next to the sewage treatment plant.
Sorry, it’s not a good idea to put a governmental organization next to a sewage treatment plant.
If only because we’d never hear the end of jokes about excrementally bad judgment and hot air and every lower bodily function you can come up with to refer to government.
But like most things it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I still remember the corporate sigh of despair from the diet candy maker whose product for losing weight rapidly was called Ayds.
Talk about a downer.
One minute you have products in every drugstore and a great ad campaign and the next moment the public decides it doesn’t like spelling out H.I.V. all the time and the term “Aids” settles into the language as the way to refer to a devastating disease.
And then there were all the executive types. Used to be you could be called a Manager and you felt pretty special. Then you had to be called a President, or possibly an Executive Vice President. After that, you really weren’t anybody until you were called a CEO, a Chief Executive Officer.
Then people became Directors. Next step, Executive Director.
Finally, you had arrived. Your climb to the top of the top was rewarded with the title of Executive Director. The abbreviation ED fairly glistened on the brass plaque on your desk.
You had personalized license plates put on your Corvette convertible and your new $40,000 Harley, with the letters ED proclaiming to one and all your status in life.
And then the law of unintended consequences kicked in. The letters ED suddenly took on a whole new meaning.
Viagra came out.
Now, for some reason, whenever you ride your Harley, people snicker...
America, ya gotta love it