re: Why ULL/USL/Southwestern Louisiana Institute is annoying....

quote:

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It's like a person that goes by a name all his life, and all of a sudden decides that the world needs to stop calling him that name and call him something else, when he's in his 30's - as if that makes a difference of being a much more intellectual or better person because of a name change.

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Whether you know it or not, this is balls-on accurate in this case.

About 10 years ago now, I was selling ad space at The Daily advertiser and had Durel's Pet Shop as a client. I used to hang out in there quite a bit, and Joey Durel (now the City/Parish President of Laffy) liked me and we'd talk often. Right after the recent name change, which had to have taken place in 1999 I guess, I was upstaurs at the old Johnston St pet shop location looking at his blueprints for the "new" store he was wanting to open up on Ambassador and we started talking about the name change. He was a HUGE proponent of it, and I thought it was stupid. I explained that while I was a USL alumnus, I was an LSU fan and always had been. I loved my time as a student at USL, loved the city and made it my home...but I had been a Tiger from the time I was a kid and the first chance I had I was getting season tickets for LSU Football.

He nearly had a stroke. He went into this tirade about how I was the problem...that too many people chose to blindly support LSU over USL. I argued that I had, in fact, supported USL while a student. Unlike the vast majority of students at USL, I actually attened sporting events! I told him that USL's problem wasn;t people in the region that identified with LSU, but USL fans who felt it more important to measure every accomplishment in terms of how it stacked up against what LSU was doing rather than on its own merit. He'd have none of it.

He also went on to expplain about how the name change was important if for nothing more than perception. That better things would occur BECAUSE people from other parts of the country would think the place was bigger and better because the name was University of Louisiana rather than the double directional Southwestern Louisiana. I laughed ans said, "Mr. Joey...with all due respect, Jon Lovitz could change his name to Brad Pitt, but he wouldn't be nailing Jennifer Anniston anytime soon."

That about ended our working relationship...