Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Asking advice on naming my Prius

Today, I'm tackling another of this month's prompts, "Do you prefer to take advice from strangers or from people close to you?"  The answer is that I prefer to take advice from the people close to me.  I know where they're coming from and how much I can trust them.  That written, I'm going to ask both friends and strangers about what to name my Prius.


Follow over the jump for the names I want my readers' advice on.

I have three names in mind for the car.  First, since the car I traded in was named Ruby, a character from "Once Upon a Time," I thought I might name this car after another character from the show.  The first one that came to mind was Regina Mills, the Evil Queen and Mayor of Storybrook.


Regina was also the first name that occurred to a co-worker who also is a fan of the show, so that works in her favor.

I also thought of Killian Jones AKA Captain Hook.


Yes, I'm fond of morally ambiguous characters who wear flamboyant dark outfits.

My wife's response to this idea was that if I wanted a Disney pirate's name for my car, I should call the car Pearl, after Jack Sparrow's ship, The Black Pearl.


The car is even the color of black pearls.


Consequently, any recommendations for pirate-themed names will default to Pearl unless any one of them gets more votes than all other suggestions.  Also, in case of a tie, Pearl wins.  My wife's advice outweighs all the rest.

The last name is a call back to an ealier car, Yuki.  As I mentioned when I explained her name, "Yuki wasn't my favorite character from the anime.  That was Lebia Maverick."


In a comment to Farewell, Yuki, "Her name wouldn't have fit my Kia. I'd have to save that for a much more high-tech vehicle."  The Prius is exactly that kind of high-tech vehicle.

By the way, there is some advice I won't take.  For example, when I first asked what name I should give to my car, I got a smart aleck who said "Pious."  I recognized that as the name of the car of the smug Prius owner from "South Park."


First, no.  Second, the name form is Pius, not Pious--and if I wanted to name my car after a pope, it would be Francis.  That's not happening either.

So, which name should I choose?  Leave your pick of the above in the comments.

6 comments:

  1. Pearl. Definitely Pearl. Best resembles what she looks like, also easiest to explain. Regina and Lebia? Hmmm... mispronounce those, you've got a bit more 'splainen to do...

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    1. Pearl is winning over at my Facebook page, too. There are a couple of votes for Regina, but none for Lebia. Just as well, not only for the reason you mentioned, but also because my taste in entertainment has changed. I haven't watched an entire anime series in years, while my wife and I have watched all seasons of "Once Upon A Time" and all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

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    1. Thank you for deleting your spam. It saved me the trouble.

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  3. I'd go with Black Pearl. It has a touch of charm to it. I never gave my Priuses a name, but I always mentally thought of them as "the cheesebox on wheels." I've owned two Mustangs, a sweet red Fiero GT that I bought new in 1987 and kept until 2005, plus my dream car, a '63 split-window Vette that I kept for 22 years (got it used when I was in my 20s) through two complete renovations. Eco-guilt finally got to me in middle age and I became responsible. But Kee-rist, Priuses are boring.

    I've owned two Priuses, one with right-hand drive when my ex and I lived here from 2006-2009, and another when we were in Vancouver from 2009-2012. The first one we had to pay for in cash, $44,000 Australian when the Aussie dollar was worth about 75 U.S. cents, because we were immigrants who had no credit record here and couldn't get a loan. Our gold-plated American financial record didn't count for anything because other countries do not check U.S. FICO scores. We had our bank guy in Zurich wire the money to us, which shocked the salesman, because I think he suspected we were bullshitting about having a Swiss bank account.

    The second one, we had to make and initial payment of $10,000 Canadian in cash and pay it off under an accelerated 3-year loan, although that was at 0% interest, which I was fine with because the bankmaggots were not making rentier money off me. The week after it was paid off, my ex took it with her to San Francisco (with my agreement) when she bailed on the 10-year marriage. Not that I was broken-hearted, because living with a depressed woman for a decade grew old. We were in complete agreement about the Kunstler/Archdruid/Automatic Earth Doomster outlook for civilisation, but she let it crush her soul, while I accept the fact that I can't do anything about the Big Picture, so why be miserable every day?

    Now I live without a car, even though I could buy a new Mercedes (not a HUGE one) for cash with the silver bullion coins I keep in my flat. (They're too bulky to store in the safe deposit vault with the gold.) That's because Melbourne has an excellent public transportation system, with street trams in the city core and nearby suburbs, plus electric trains that radiate to satellite towns 30 or 40 km away. JHK would approve of this city! That's one of the reasons I chose to immigrate to this burg instead of any other in Oz. It's flat here compared to San Fran and Van, too, so I get around nicely on my bicycle.

    When you think about it, we spend one day a week working for our cars, with the payments, petrol, insurance, parking, tickets, etc. No car means more free time for Bukko, or more money in the bank. (Actually, cash stuffed into the album sleeve of "Dark Side of the Moon" -- the "Money" song, dontcha know -- until I have enough put aside to buy more gold coins. Because fcuk leaving money in a bank, eh?)

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    1. "I'd go with Black Pearl. It has a touch of charm to it."

      Thanks for the vote. The Black Pearl she is.

      "Eco-guilt finally got to me in middle age and I became responsible. But Kee-rist, Priuses are boring."

      I always drove high-mileage cars, but I drove a lot of miles, a story I've told elsewhere.

      Consequently, I funneled my eco-guilt into trying to drive less. That was successful until I bought the house my wife and I live in now. Then, my miles driven increased 50%. Decreasing driving was no longer an option. So, the next car we bought was The Black Pearl, which doubled my gas mileage over Ruby. BTW, so far the car is not boring.

      "living with a depressed woman for a decade grew old."

      Try dating a manic-depressive for a decade. The manic stages were fun until she became frankly psychotic. I told her I would put up with her moods, but I didn't say I'd put up with her delusions.

      "Melbourne has an excellent public transportation system, with street trams in the city core and nearby suburbs, plus electric trains that radiate to satellite towns 30 or 40 km away. JHK would approve of this city!"

      I just showed my students a graph of population density vs. energy consumption. Melbourne looked better than Toronto in terms of energy use per capita. Maybe I should post it here.

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