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"Receptor agonist" is such a delightfully scientific phrase for the Ozempics of the world - I hope someone writes a scathing memoir in the vein of Anna Weiner's "Uncanny Valley" or Patty Lin's "End Credits" about their miserable time in big pharma and calls it "Receptor Agonist."

The link to Laura's (incredible) article on Barbie isn't working in this post, btw - but the more personally interesting question that comes to mind is, wait, wasn't there a Nancy who regularly commented on Babynamewizard? Was that you? :O

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Thanks for letting me know about the link -- it's fixed now.

I was a regular reader but very infrequent commenter on Baby Name Wizard. Probably another Nancy! (We are legion.)

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Haha, I love BNW (and I guess Namerology now) and Laura so much. She quoted a comment I made in one of the Name of the Year posts (about Breonna Taylor I think?) and it made my week. "Senpai noticed me," as we said a decade ago on Tumblr. But yes, there's absolutely no reason why a baby name website should be so consistently intelligent rather than a salmon cannon for listicles. And yet it is!

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re. Frankmobile: I would like to go on record for calling out this BS https://boingboing.net/2023/05/18/the-wienermobile-has-a-new-name-is-it-temporary.html

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We called it!

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re. Bad omen: This year, after the OceanGate tragedy, a luxury apartment complex opened in New Jersey. Its name? Ocean Gate (two words). "Ocean Gate is not just a place to live; it's an invitation to experience the coastal dream." Yikes! https://patch.com/new-jersey/longbranch/ocean-gate-long-branch-now-renting-rents-start-low-3-000s

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Dec 21, 2023Liked by Nancy Friedman

The landlady for our temporary Hayes Valley residence had told me about the "Cerebral Valley" moniker, but she hadn't conveyed that it was a madey-uppy, boosterish name. Relatedly, it's possible that proudly associating oneself with AI (like those "invented here" signs I see around Market) might eventually look like a bad move, so probably just as well that "HAIyes Valley" isn't a thing?

re: Leavenworth and McDonald's. Some say "Old World Bavarian Alpine magic", some say, you know, kitsch. :)

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"Kitsch" and "magic" are entwined in my book :)

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Dec 21, 2023Liked by Nancy Friedman

That's fair :)

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