What’s in a name?

This is meant as an entirely friendly jab at our friends over at

the Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce:

Really, it’s time to get a new banner.

At a recent chamber event, the proudly displayed banner that

graced the meeting -- a shimmering white with bold blue letters, in

our estimation -- contained just one little problem.

It still refers to the Newport Harbor Area Chamber of Commerce.

Now, we can’t quite remember when the chamber officially changed

its name to more closely link itself with Newport Beach, so even as

we write this scoop we’re checking the chamber’s Web site for a

little information.

Lo and behold, it’s still the Newport Harbor Area Chamber there,

too. Actually, it’s fairly unbalanced. Some parts of the Web site say

Newport Beach Chamber, others go with the old name.

Oh, and after a little more searching we find the name change

happened last December.

There has to be a statue of limitation somewhere.

A good choice of designers

The folks over at South Coast Plaza apparently knew what they were

looking for when they had the “Bridge of Gardens� built.

For those who didn’t see it, on Saturday, the bridge’s designer,

Kathryn Gustafson, was on the weekend Today Show to talk about being

selected to design the memorial fountain that will commemorate the

late Princess Diana.

Who chose Gustafson for her latest gig? The “Royal Parks,� which

probably amounts to Great Britain’s Parks Department, but sounds a

lot fancier to us.