The SLUT gets around...

Some stories get around more than either a streetcar or a promiscuous woman. One is how Seattle's new South Lake Union Streetcar has been unofficially renamed the South Lake Union Trolley. This has been reported near and far.

This isn't the first railroad acronym to inspire snickers. Switzerland's F.A.R.T. has been in business for years. Of course, that's an official name from outside the English-speaking world.

I must admit, there's a contrived feeling to this story. The name is unofficial. Some of the stories mention that "South Lake Union" is an official name for neighborhoods that traditionally used other names--Cascade, etc.. One wonders if dubbing the light rail system the "S.L.U.T." is someone's revenge for that official designation.

Of course, it could be spontaneous. After all, what else might it have been called? S.L.U.S. isn't a word. (It's close to "slush," but no cigar.) "South Lake Union Railway?" Is S.L.U.R. much better?

Regardless, I'm enjoying the corny and predictable jokes about the S.L.U.T. getting around, about riding the S.L.U.T., about how the S.L.U.T. is easy to access. You get the idea. It's not many $51,000,000 transit projects that take on an air of being loose and lascivious.