This may be a one-post thread, but perhaps we can come up with further examples.
The institution we call the United Nations was originally called the "Associated Powers. When President Franklin Roosevelt sopoke with Winston Churchill and proposed the current name Churchill instantly seized upon it, quoting Lord Byron:
quote:Millions of tongues record thee, and anew Their children's lips shall echo them, and say -- "Here, where the sword united nations drew, Our countrymen were warring on that day!" And this is much, and all which will not pass away."
The Churchill/Roosevetl conversation occurred on New Year's Day, 1942 while Churchill was in the bathtub at the US White House.
Any further examples of institutional or geographic names inspired by or alluding to literature?
this house is called possum's place. he is a cat. after i named him 16 years ago (he's still kickin' butt and takin' names) i saw t.s. eliot's old possum's book of cats. he is fat. he is a cat. he is now old. for people who don't know, "Cats" the longest running broadway show was adapted from Old Possum's Book of Cats.
I mention Utopia in this thread. Apparently "A new country that has never existed before, which will be built in a moderately tropical sea, a perfect climate, a paradise: Utopia!" is planned; see the New Utopia Web site. I particularly like "New Utopia will be managed by a Board of Governors; managing what we believe to be the most perfect city/state ever conceived, blending the philosophies of both Ayn Rand and Robert Heinlein."
maybe t.s. eliot had a cat named that or something. i just heard last night on tv, some new really stupid drama and they have a character named jay prufrock. man......
for another literary place name, we have a really, really old funky, creepy design, st oner apartment complex here called Moonraker. is that anything? it's the best i could do.
