The poet Marianne Moore was once asked to come up with car names for the Ford Motor Company, and if it wasn’t for the genius of their own term, the Edsel, we could’ve been driving around in Resilient Bullets, Varsity Strokes, or Utopian Turtletops. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Poetic Car Names”
I learned something interesting the other day about poet Marianne Moore.
Did you know that she was once asked by people at the Ford Company to help name a new car?
Did she?
Well, she tried.
She tried to come up with some names for this new car that was coming out in 1955, and she thought about it for a while.
And here are the inspirational names for the new Ford car.
They included Resilient Bullet, Ford Silversword, Varsity Stroke, Pastelogram, and my favorite, Utopian Turtletop.
Okay.
What did they end up using?
Edsel.
Oh.
I had no idea, but apparently this is in…
It helps to have good source material.
Yes.
Maybe she just wasn’t inspired by the machine.
I think Utopian Turtletop, I would buy one of those in a second.
You wouldn’t.
I might rent one.
There’s no marketing department alive that will let that name stand.
I’ve heard worse.
What about Probe?
Oh, okay.
Who wants to be rear-ended by one of those?
