Radio Silence

Believe it or not, I have actually been thinking about the Great Re-Motto Victoria Contest, announced two postings ago.  My own ideas didn’t amount to much—clearly, being an ad man was not my calling.  After racking my brain for a suitable slogan, I did what I invariably do in these situations:  I sought inspiration at an internet site that generates anagrams for whatever words you submit.  This is nearly always a fruitless tactic because what comes back is 98% nonsensical and 2% pornographic or blasphemous.  But every once in a while something truly golden pops up, and besides it’s always amusing, so I gave it a whirl.

Initially I tried “Victoria,” but that yielded only three useless anagrams; so I resubmitted “Victoria Australia,” which gave me a lot more to choose from.  None of the resulting phrases was remotely appropriate as a state slogan, of course, but some of them were interesting in their own way:  “Avaricious Rat Tail,” for instance, or “Casual Trivia Ratio,” or “Racial Aviator Suit”.

Out of ideas there, I resorted one last time to my own creative powers.  I thought “Victoria—wildlife to die for!” was pretty good, but it would certainly be vetoed by the Department of Motto Emission, or whatever grey agency it was that produced the current gems.  In the end, the best I ever came up with was “Semper Victoria.”  That doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, I’ll grant you, but it does sound regal and stately, and I submit it is at least as relevant as “Victoria—On the Move.”

Fortunately, there are alert and creative readers out there, several of whom actually sent in proposed mottos of their own.  One of the most striking was “Victoria—Long Dead.”  The reader making this suggestion emphasized that it referred to Queen Victoria.  Nonetheless, it clearly would take a pitchman of unmatched skill to persuade the State of Victoria to start stamping this on their license plates.

My personal favorite submission was “Victoria—Share the Secret.”  This is clever, and hip, and comports nicely with the Australian penchant for slightly earthy humor.  Sadly, Victoria’s Secret (an American seller of sexy undergarments and sleepwear for women) apparently is unknown in Australia, so it would be necessary to share the joke before sharing the secret.  So we have no winner yet.  Keep the submissions coming; you see now the sort of competition you are up against.

In other news, I have now begun my CELTA course at Monash University, and so will be going into radio silence, making no new posts till after our Christmas trip to Tasmania.  I will thus extend here my holiday greetings and best wishes to all for a happy new year.

P.S.  We did acquire an old-fashioned right-on-the-ground tent to take with us to Tasmania.  I know we dithered between several models, and can’t recall now if we went for The Slither-Inn, The Serpentarium, or The EZ-Bite.  In any event, check back in the New Year:  this should be good!

     --originally posted 11/2008