Ravenwood Naming Contest

Spring '92

The Name Marilyn's New House (if the loan comes through) Contest

   Most cool literary types name their fabulous estate, like Walden Pond, Tara, Twelve Oaks, Biltmore, Windy Corner, so I wanted to name my place, if the loan came through. Pal Mark suggested something like "Thirty Years of Mortgage!" or "How Did I Ever Get Myself Into This?!!!" or "The Albatross!" but I was thinking of something a little more romantic. "Got any suggestions for the English countryside/Addams fan? Jot 'em down and send 'em in!" I encouraged my crimestopper friends, with the promise of the winner receiving a package of Chic-lets, a package of zinnia seeds, something else really neat that I just couldn’t think of at the time, and a full-color photo of me and the house (see how boring that is? "the house" Ugghh).

The entries poured in:

> Pal Donna said she was thinking of "Marilawn" but didn't mail it in (that's no way to get chic-lets and zinnia seeds, now, is it, Donna?).

> Cool English Suggestions from Brenda and Galen in England:
Altered Towers "Evokes all the best of Altered States which is very true, and the sentimental heartwarming tale of Fawlty Towers. Also, like Alton Towers, it will be a magnificent theme park, amusement arcade, recreation area, and all-round fun place made from what was originally a heritageble, basic 34-bedroom English, historic land-granted, incredibly famous family home in the beautiful hills north of the major capital. It also leaves open the possibility of further physical and name changes,by its very name. Do I win?"
   Also:
Send in the Clowns-They're Already Here
Madame Tussaud's Piccadilly Rock Circus on the edge of Little Venice in Kennesaw
Eaten Squared Mansions
The Cutty Shark
Marilynland
Broadmoor ("Sounds great--but this is a famous British prison/insane asylum")
Marilyngham ("to rhyme with Hurlingham or Sandringham")
    *They also recommended "Drones," a reference to the P G Wodehouse novels featuring Bertie Wooster's club (a fabulously ironic worker-bee name for Bertie's lazy rich friends) and my favorite restaurant I've never been to in London that's a block down from Brenda's flat that serves the most expensive hamburger in England (P.G. Wodehouse, an English 1920's club, wealth, humor, and hamburgers--five of my favorite things, I must say!). Perhaps I shall call my den the Drones Room, since it will be decorated in that style, hold my computer and fun audio/visual equipment, and be the general hang-out area of my friends. Yes, I think I shall!

> Gary's suggestions:
1) Wuthering Heights ("you said romantic")
2) Tara--NOT! ("Garth and Wayne made me do it!")
3) Southern Exposure
4) The Alchemist's Corner ("in memory of John Barrymore")
5) House O' Marilyn
6) The Lair
7) The Kennesaw Castle

> Mark's suggestions:
The Rookery (a Charles Dickens' reference)
Miss Manor
Dear Abbey
The Builtless (as opposed to The Biltmore)
Shangra-Marilyn (only slightly stolen from Letterman's Top 10 List)

> Anna Mary's suggestion:
Shangra-Lyn (completely stolen from Mark's suggestion)

> Damn Fine Coffee's (my team trivia team) suggestions:
Well, they strayed from the English/Addams Family/Art Deco themes and recommended I plant two onions in my front yard and call it "Twin Leeks" or "The Damn Fine Coffee Grounds."

AND THE CHIC-LETS GO TO...

   I wound up choosing a name inspired by Mark's Rookery suggestion. I thought, well, rooks are English black birds, but I prefer ravens, now if raven was in the name, like -- and then I remembered one of my favorite surnames of fiction, a name I'd love to use in fiction but lifting fictional names for other pieces of fiction is tacky, and now it presents itself to my stately home. PLUS PLUS PLUS it draws in yet another connection of my personality--Spielberg and Lucas. In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Abner Ravenwood was Indiana Jones' mentor and his daughter Marian Ravenwood is Indy's greatest love. Wood lends an English gardeny estate feel, and ravens, naturally, are English (The Tower), Halloweeny (Edgar Allan Poe), and Addams Family ("The Raven" is Pugsly's favorite bedtime story--and they have a pet raven). So Marilyn's estate is "Ravenwood."

    YEAAAA!!! Now I'm looking for a little iron address sign with a raven on it to stick in the front yard.


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