UPDATE: No less an authority than MTV chimes in.
When we last checked on the city’s call to rename Solid Waste Services, there were only a few, lonely recommendations.
That’s certainly not the case anymore!
In a little over a week, online voting for new department names has shot through the roof – and possibly not to the city’s liking. Taking first place honors as of this writing, with 11,723 votes, is the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts, so named for the Limp Bizkit frontman whose recorded output, voters seemingly feel, indicates a familiarity with garbage. Other odious suggestions include The Fred Phelps & Shirley Phelps-Roper Memoriam, and the George W. Bush Institution of WMD (Waste, Matter and Debris) Removal.
Acronym-wise, we have Fostering Energy Conservation and Ecological Sanitation, or FECES (one of several anally fixated entries from users seemingly convinced SWS handles human solid waste), Austin Sustainability Services (ASS), and Waste Elimination Including Recycling Department (WEIRD).
One acronym has seemingly been kicked out, however: Get Our Austin Thoroughly Sanitized Everyone, or GOATSE, which garnered several votes but has seemingly been removed from contention. (Here, if you have to ask, although you’re better off not knowing.) A little Google-Fu links the GOATSE suggestion to infamous message board 4chan, although they’re not the only online entity looking to influence the voting, as some Stephen Colbert-related proposals attest.
The deadline for voting ends Feb. 10, although we can only hope the city extends it …
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This article appears in January 28 • 2011.