Believing that creativity allows for endless possibilities when it comes to naming things (for example, see naming conventions of progeny in the African American community*), I was disappointed to see a sign for "Street Road" when driving across the boring part of Maryland on I-68. (Note: I am aware that the image is for a similar byway in PA and not the one I saw in MD -- more on that in a minute.)
It bothered me so much that I did a little digging around on the interwebs (not at the time I was driving, as I think I pledged to Oprah that I wouldn't do that at some point in my past, but when I got home), and I feel a little better having learned that there is a town in MD named Street and so this path is literally the road to Street, and not the height of laziness as I had first thought. As for the one in PA, which is the one that google provided to me as an image when I went searching for something to accompany this post, Wiki says that it is also not laziness for which I should be offended, but that "it was called the Street road because, contrary to present usage where 'street' is a synonym for road, the original use of the word 'street' was a paved road".
I am now appeased.
[*Oh ... I also wanted to say that upon reflection, I didn't want this to sound racist in any way, so I went to the internet to document that this was a known cultural phenomenon. In so doing, I first found a good bit of racist detritus, and then I finally stumbled on a Freakonomics clip that helped to put that observation in context ... and an ABC companion study about how "white" and "black" names were treated by hiring managers ... fascinating stuff ...]
MY WIKI SOURCE REGARDING "STREET ROAD":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Route_132
THE FREAKONOMICS PERSPECTIVE:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9TWt_9ARrg
A COMPANION STUDY ON "WHITE NAMES" AND "BLACK NAMES":
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=2470131
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