The Mazda Millenia<\/a><\/p>\nI know that car companies feel compelled to come up with names-that-are-not-names. In other words, we can’t call something a Thunderbird any more, or a Mustang, or a Cougar, or some other evocative image. Don’t ask me why. I guess the good animals and forces of nature are all taken up.<\/p>\n
We certainly can’t name vehicles after people or tribes. Heavens.<\/p>\n
So unless a car company wants to go the European route and call their latest sedan the M23i\/lcd or something like that, they have to make up names.<\/p>\n
Mazda, if you’re going to make up a name, make up a name. Don’t use a word that’s almost a real word, just close enough to confuse the hell out of everyone.<\/p>\n
I had hoped that most folks learned how to spell “Millennium” a year or two back when we had one. Perhaps I cheated, since it follows the same pattern as my home town, “Centennial,” in terms of having two N’s, which is the tricky part.<\/p>\n
Mazda, of course, drops an N.<\/p>\n
They also end it with an A, which makes it sound cool, foreign, classy. It also turns the word “Millennium” into “Millennia,” which is plural.<\/p>\n
But it’s just a made-up word, right?<\/p>\n
Imagine if they named a car the “Texen.” Or the “Ameraca.” Or the “Expleror.”<\/p>\n
Dumb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I vaguely recall having seen this a while back. If so, I clearly blotted it from my memory. The Mazda Millenia I know that car companies feel compelled to come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-potpourri"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31841,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/diesels-return-to-the-us.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":0},"title":"Diesels return to the US","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 19-Dec-12 9:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"We drove a couple of diesel vehicles in Italy last year, and they worked quite well for us. \u00a0They're coming back initially in luxury cars here in the States, but I expect that to \"trickle down\" through the product lines over time. Embedded Link The Diesels Are Finally Coming to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135301,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/11\/06\/diplomatic-ever-knowledgeable-president.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":1},"title":"The Diplomatic and Ever-So-Knowledgeable President","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 6-Nov-17 10:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"You'd almost think Donald Trump hasn't read an article about Japanese car manufacture and US imports since, oh, 1976 or so. (Emphasis mine.) President Trump called on Japan to build more cars in the U.S. during his stop in the country as part of his first official tour of Asia\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/trump-serious.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1961,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/04\/02\/vroom_vroom_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":2},"title":"Vroom-vroom","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 2-Apr-02 10:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Car Talk names the Worst Car of the Millennium. I won't spoil any surprises here (read the article), but some of the comments from the voters were drop-dead funny. \"There...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7219,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/10\/07\/we_want_informa.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":3},"title":"We want … information","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 7-Oct-04 10:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"A word of advice for artists designing and executing murals for libraries: Don't misspell names in your mural. I mean, do some research, use some care, ask people to look...","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128806,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/14\/names-mean-things-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":4},"title":"Names Mean Things","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Nov-15 6:15pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I am usually a bit leery about changes in nomenclature, as they almost always have a purpose to change the meaning of things. I missed this article a year ago about re-dubbing ISIL (ISIS, IS) as \"Daesh\" -- a word that serves as an actual acronym for the group, as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/05\/13\/a_no_win_situat.html","url_meta":{"origin":2613,"position":5},"title":"A no-win situation","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-May-02 12:16pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've never had much sympathy for Native American groups that complain about sports teams that use various \"Indian\" themes for their team names. It seems to open a whole can...","rel":"","context":"In "ZT & PC"","block_context":{"text":"ZT & PC","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/zt-pc"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2613\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}