Marianne Moore clocks in at the Ford plant

A story from the annals of American Literature that has tickled me for years, via wikipedia:

In 1955, [modernist poet Marianne] Moore was informally invited by Ford's David Wallace, Manager of Marketing Research for Ford's proposed "E" car project and co-worker Bob Young for input and suggestions. Wallace's rationale was "who better to understand the nature of words than a poet."
Moore, a loyal Ford owner, submitted numerous lists which included: "Silver Sword," "Thundercrest" (and "Thundercrester"), "Resilient Bullit," "Intelligent Whale," "Pastelogram," "Adante con Moto" "Varsity Stroke," and "Mongoose Civique." (One name she suggested, "Chaparral", later coincidentally was used for a racing car.) Against the strong objection of her brother, Moore also submitted the name TURCOTINGA, which was a play on the Cotinga (a South American finch) and the color turquoise; however, she noted in her letter to Wallace that it was simply a suggestion; that if he wanted to go in the direction of nature she had several volumes of works that she could review. In a letter dated December 8th 1955, Moore wrote the following:

Mr Young,
May I submit UTOPIAN TURTLETOP? Do not trouble to answer unless you like it. Marianne Moore

All these outside ideas were rejected, although Miss Moore received two dozen roses and a thank you note affectionately addressed to the Top Turtletop, which Moore found amusing. In her reply to Young she regretted that she could not have been more help, and noted that she was looking forward to trying out the vehicle when it was introduced. While Moore's contributions were meant to stir creative thought, and were not officially authorized or contractual in nature, history has greatly exaggerated her relationship to the project. The car was finally christened "the Edsel."

Every so often it strikes me to do something creative with some or all of those interesting car names, so today I decided to see if anyone else had:

• Silver Sword - There are close to 12 million hits for Silver Sword on Google. It seems that the overlap between folks who enjoy computers and folks who enjoy talking about interesting varieties of swords is rather high.
  
• Thundercrest (and Thundercrester) - Thundercrest also brought a bunch of hits having to do with Everquest. Apparently at some point during play you can be "sent in to the Thundercrest Isles to destroy the animated statues created by the drake Kro`val." I doubt if there is a Marianne Moore connection here. "Thundercrester" brought five hits about Moore and her adventures with Edsel, including one in Czechoslovakian.
  
• Resilient Bullit - I'm not sure if "Bullitt" was deliberately misspelled, but either way, nobody seems to be using it -- it's there for the picking.
  
• Intelligent Whale - Check this out:
  

Intelligent Whale was one of a number of submarines built during the Civil War. She was hand-propelled, and steered by horizontal and vertical rudders. Wooden doors on the bottom allowed a diver to exit with a mine. She was purchased by the U.S. Navy in 1869, and brought to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for testing. In September 1872, in her only official Navy test, Intelligent Whale flooded. The crew escaped, but the Navy's interest in her ceased. Intelligent Whale was an early experiment in a field now of great importance.

(Nothing to do with Moore. She wasn't born yet. But, man is that cool!)

• Pastelogram - "Plan59.com" is a particularly lovely site that focuses on 1950's era design. Pastelogram is the name of their blog. Great stuff.
  
• Andante con Moto - Brahms predates Moore as well.
  
• Varsity Stroke - I admit to being more than a little frightened at what I'd get from this. Actually we get a lot of hits about college rowing teams.
  
• Mongoose Civique - Just hits about Moore, but one writer wondered aloud if this name was the inspiration for the "Honda Civic."
  
• Turcotinga - More Moore, but the ratio of non-English hits is rather high.
  
• Utopian Turtletop - Another blog (although it's spelled "uTopian Turtletop"). Mr. Turtletop seems to be a pop culture generalist who is happy to write about whatever strikes his fancy (particularly music). Click through to his own music, which sounds like the sort of stuff that only happens halfway through a Sunday afternoon backyard barbecue when someone says "Hey, let's get the guitars out." Which is, now that I think of it, what the blog feels like, too. That's a compliment, by the way.