The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Seriously, "Big Willie?" Um, no.

The Sears Tower's name officially changed to Willis Tower this morning, under the new ownership of UK insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Ltd. No one will call it that for a generation, of course, a fact not lost on NPR's Steve Inskeep this morning.

Willis CEO Joseph Plumeri, in what I sincerely hope was a moment of retail British irony rather than wholesale American idiocy, suggested a way to help ease the transition:

[Crain's Chicago Business]: Any idea how long will it take for people to get used to the new name?

[Plumeri]: No, I don't. People have asked me, "What do you think they'll call it? Willis, Sears?" I've said, "You can call it the Big Willie, and that would be fine with me." And I mean that. I don't mean that in a comedic way. (Chicago) is a town of neighborhoods and it's a town of nicknames. And people in this town, when you call something by a nickname it's not meant to be demeaning, because I come from the neighborhoods. It's meant to be a term of endearment. So if they did that, that would be fine.

One more thing: I want to warn my friends and colleagues that, today and tomorrow, anyone uttering that hideous phrase from that treacly 1980s sitcom—you know what I'm f@!$&!! taliking about—will be punished. Oh yes. In the names of Strunk, White, and Orwell, you will be punished.

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