5:00 am Central Post on Olympia Snowe

[Believing Is Art]

You know, she has, hands down, the absolute most awesome name for a girl. Major kudos to her parents on that one. For me it evokes images of the Cascades. Probably because the Olympic peninsula is in Washington, and then snow . . . Cascades!

It's sort of like the hippie trend to name your kids Flower, Harmony, or Sunshine. Or when Gwyneth Paltrow named her daughter Apple. We could even bring in Sarah Palin. For all her naming misdirections, I find Piper, Willow, and Bristol to be appealing. Piper of course portends a musical quality. As an aero engineer and pilot, I associate Piper with the general aviation planes they manufacture - one of which I fly. So when I hear Piper, I hear musical flight. Art and beauty meet machine and physics in the most freeing of fluid mediums. Willow: strong, anchored roots, thin and fluid branches, a perpetual cascade. The willow tree moves as one with the breeze for just a snapshot, only to await a new opportunity. This rapid dance juxtaposes the calm, rippled lake at the willos's feet. The willow protects its banks, it entertains the waters, it gives it more - the marriage of air and plant, plant and earth, earth and water. They are all tied together for survival and beauty. Bristol may have been named for either her mother's lost dreams of ESPN stardom, or Bristol Bay in Alaska. But to me, it calls to the town shared by Tennessee and Virginia. Old and country. In the heart of the Blue Ridge and just north of the Great Smokies. When I hear Bristol, the image is that of a fog rolling in through the thinning trees on a chill morning during sunrise. It's bright enough to see and the air is crisp, but the forest leaves enough shadows for mystery.

"Olympia Snowe" is better than all of those. The Flower Power names, the Celebrity "Apple"-type names. They're shallow. Unimaginative. The Palin girls' names can evoke more than her parents intended, but then you have to go add "Palin" to the end. But "Olympia Snowe . . ." it is cool and classy. Old names that together mean more than they would apart.

I'm sorry, Lounge. I just had a beer, Ambien, and Zyrtec.