The great name game 2007...an update

A while ago I told of a wager I have on with Jamie whereby I have until the end of 2007 to get something named after me. Well in the bet, Jamie stated that the "rules" included a council approval of such act.

So I've got the ball rolling by contacting Southampton County Council with this e-mail:

Hell there...

My name is Danny Brothers and fear not...this isn't one of those spam e-mails that tries to get bank deatails from you so please keep reading.

Thanks...

The main reason for my e-mail is a pretty strange one but one which I hope you can help with. Recently, on a visit to St. Catherine's Hill in Winchester I had an idea. I thought that if St Catherine can have a hill named after her, why can't I get something named after me?

I ran this by my friends and though most were supportive of my plan, they mostly seemed doubtful that I could pull off this task. Anyway, one of my friends was so doubtful that he put a wager up saying that I couldn't do it and I accepted the challenge.

You are the first people that I'm contacting as I believe you may be able to point me in the right direction. So it would be great if you could let me know any information on how I can get something named after me or what I have to do to get this honour?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks,

Danny

I've just realised that they may have been put off by the slightly strange greeting of "hell there" but just seconds later I received this reply:

Dear Danny,

Thank you for your e-mail.I am not sure who I need to pass this onto at the moment, but I will dosome investigting and I will pas this e-mail onto the relevevant department for you.

Thank you

OK so it's not the greatest response and as Jamie pointed out upon my excited e-mail to him at work, this is an autmated response from the council when trying to delay things. But at around 4:30pm this afternoon came some response from a man named Roger Moritmer:

Dear Mr Brothers

Thanks for your enquiry. To get anything named after you, as a general rule you have to be both dead and distinguished, although if you are very distinguished indeed and not in a position to foul anything up, it may be OK to be still alive.

You may feel that's not a price worth paying. In that case, I'm not sure where you're based, but it may be worth considering a move to somewhere like Blackburn, where you will find they have already done the job for you. See the following link:-

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=brothers+street+blackburn&sll=53.098145,-2.443696&sspn=6.441601,14.80957&layer=&ie=UTF8&om=1&z=15&ll=53.732593,-2.510419&spn=0.012389,0.043001&iwloc=addr

Regards, Roger Mortimer

Right...so if I'm very distinguished indeed, it MAY be OK to be alive, otherwise my only options are to move to Blackburn or to die. Which one of those would be the most painful is still a question that needs answering but neither appeals to me at this moment in time.

I do, however, thank Mr Mortimer for his time and I think it's brilliant that I've been able to make someone from the council use up some of his work day trying to please me by finding a street with my name on!

What did also amuse me is that on the final e-mail, I could see where the other councilers had passed the query on to Mr Mortimer...the first was from Lauren on behalf of one part of the council called Gateway:

Hi

I am wondering wether this would be of any intrest to you.

This gentleman wants to get something named after him and Im not really sure what you can have named after you other than a tree or a road or something.

Could you cc us in on the reply.

Thank you

Here, Lauren was forwarding my query onto non other than the Highways department! No luck there obviously, as she passed it on to Jenny Browning who wasn't too helpful either..Miss Browning sent this to good old Roger...

Could you help with this one please? Thanks.

Obviously she was busy today and not in the mood for a silly project such as this. So Mr Mortimer try as he might still couldn't find a solution that played by Jamie's rules so the challenge goes on. I think death is a little bit extreme just to win £20 to be honest so I will continue to look for another way around this...stay tuned...