What's in a name?

It all started when we were on the way to KL and I realized that we passed Lembah Beringin before hitting Bukit Beruntung and I thought that in between the two would be the perfect place to put a casino. Which, by the way, they are building in Singapore:


All that construction for a place to put your chips on chance and yell "PICTURE!" in hopes that you'll make more money out of luck than out of work. By the same people who brought us Genting - that's right, Malaysians. Contrast that with the snail-like pace of the extension of the Penang Bridge, which only carries people to and from work on a daily basis - also, most would say, also at a snail-like pace.

Anyway, after that it seems that I had an inclination to note the names people tend to give places, particularly businesses.

Picking the name of an opera has potential for adding a touch of class, one would think. The bakery named La Boheme - well, I have no idea what that's about. But the one above seemed well thought out; it's charming considering it was near a butterfly expo, and the clothes on sale were distinctly oriental. The only thing is, would you buy someone a dress named after a character who commited harakiri?

Complimenting a potential customer is so yesterday. To gain an edge today you have to be original.


And sometimes being original is provocative in every sense. However, one has to be careful when deciding whether the name of a place is meant to provoke or reflect.


Here, it's hard to say whether that's what they're selling, the customers they hope to attract, or perhaps, a warning to how you'll smell after a vintage steak from 1989.

It's a tough economy and sometimes one has to look to divine intervention when looking to light up the store:


But the best sample I got was from the name of a road. Civic consciousness is always admirable, and the promotion of personal hygeine is part of that. Which includes washing one's clothes, even - or perhaps, especially - lingerie:


For those who don't speak Malay, "basah" means "wet"... and what I didn't realize at first was that "bras" is actually short for "beras" which means "rice".