Washington DC: Preferred 5 to 4

There’s a short article in last Sunday’s New York Times about Washington DC and its effort to create a new city slogan.

Apparently the old slogan — ‘A Capital City’ — had to be retired due to a subtle double entendre. (When Washington DC’s crime rate, um, shot up in the late 1980s and early ’90s, being a capital city was nothing much to brag about.)

There’s no clear winner yet in the current crop of submissions. According to the NY Times article, “A sampling of submissions range from sober epigrams like ‘The City of National Monuments’ to playful one-liners like ‘It’s Capital, by George’ and ‘Your Party’s Here!’ Local blogs have been flooded with more irreverent proposals. ‘Mistakes Were Made,’ ‘Where Attorneys Roam’ and ‘Dude, Where’s My Car?’ are some of the printable ones.”

This being the Age of the Internet there is, of course, a website. Log on to shareyourdc.com and submit a slogan. We’re not sure if there will be prizes. We suggest tax deductions, no-child-left-behind credits or dinner with Marion Barry. Here are some of the slogans we’re planning to submit. Dude, don’t steal our epithets.

• Washington DC: Better than Baltimore! (funny because it is true)
• AC/DC (a joint rebranding effort with Atlantic City)
• Hang Ten on the Potomac (narrowly beat out ‘Aloha, Washington DC!’)
• Monumental Madness (borrowed from the Bush administration)
• NAFTA’s Favorite Capital City! (’Ottawa is for Lovers’ was already taken)
• Washington DC: Preferred 5 to 4 (submitted by Chief Justice Roberts)

–Scott McNeely

Planning a trip to Washington DC? Browse our list of Washington DC tours, Monuments by Moonlight, Gettysburg Tours and dozens of other things to do in NAFTA’s Favorite Capital City!

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Destinations, Travel Inspiration, USA, Canada, Mexico, Weird & Wonderful. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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