The Sears Tower's name officially changed to Willis Tower this morning, under the new ownership of UK insurance brokerage Willis Group Holdings Ltd. No one will call it that for a generation, of course, a fact not lost on NPR's Steve Inskeep this morning.
Willis CEO Joseph Plumeri, in what I sincerely hope was a moment of retail British irony rather than wholesale American idiocy, suggested a way to help ease the transition:
[Crain's Chicago Business]: Any idea how long will it take for people to get used to the new name?
[Plumeri]: No, I don't. People have asked me, "What do you think they'll call it? Willis, Sears?" I've said, "You can call it the Big Willie, and that would be fine with me." And I mean that. I don't mean that in a comedic way. (Chicago) is a town of neighborhoods and it's a town of nicknames. And people in this town, when you call something by a nickname it's not meant to be demeaning, because I come from the neighborhoods. It's meant to be a term of endearment. So if they did that, that would be fine.
One more thing: I want to warn my friends and colleagues that, today and tomorrow, anyone uttering that hideous phrase from that treacly 1980s sitcom—you know what I'm f@!$&!! taliking about—will be punished. Oh yes. In the names of Strunk, White, and Orwell, you will be punished.