{"id":79611,"date":"2014-11-14T16:15:58","date_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=79611"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:39:50","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:39:50","slug":"the-soul-of-wit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/","title":{"rendered":"The Soul of Wit"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_79617\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-79617\" class=\"wp-image-79617 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\" alt=\"truck_slider_950x300\" width=\"600\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png 600w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300-300x150.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-79617\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: Carpe Donut NYC<\/p><\/div>\n<p>While contemplating the purchase of a hot-cider doughnut\u00a0at the aptly named <a href=\"http:\/\/www.carpedonut.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Carpe Donut<\/a> truck, one finds oneself thinking about food-truck names. Many have; it is one of the consolations of modernity that we live in the golden age of food-truck nomenclature. Or at least the first age.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has worked in a business district or watched an episode of <em>Street Eats<\/em> knows it\u2019s not enough to have a truck and a grill: your name should ideally be gimmicky, fun, and filled with attitude, to underlie the anarchic spirit of the whole enterprise. Sexual innuendo is of course desirable. Puns are a plus. In the words of an academic with whom I once spent a tedious dinner, \u201cLanguage informs consciousness: we know this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But did you know that there is a f<a href=\"http:\/\/mobile-cuisine.com\/food-truck-name-generator\/\" target=\"_blank\">ood-truck-name generator<\/a>? Of course there is. (I have no knack for it; my key words\u2014<em>scampering<\/em>, <em>spinster<\/em>, <em>maple<\/em>\u2014were apparently not sufficiently cheeky, even after I added <em>sullen<\/em> to the mix for extra attitude.) But then, I didn\u2019t really need it; I already have the perfect name. Ogden Nosh. We\u2019ll sell franks, but of course, they\u2019ll be called Doggerels. The way some fast-food chains give their customers discreet Bible verses on the bottoms of cups, we\u2019ll force-feed our patrons nonsense verses. And, naturally, on the side of the truck will be written the following: \u201cA door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While contemplating the purchase of a hot-cider doughnut\u00a0at the aptly named Carpe Donut truck, one finds oneself thinking about food-truck names. Many have; it is one of the consolations of modernity that we live in the golden age of food-truck nomenclature. Or at least the first age. Anyone who has worked in a business district [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[16044,16045,16043,9295,16046,124],"class_list":["post-79611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-carpe-donut","tag-food-truck-name-generator","tag-food-trucks","tag-names","tag-naming","tag-new-york"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Soul of Wit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on what goes into the names of food trucks.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Soul of Wit by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"November 14, 2014 \u2013 While contemplating the purchase of a hot-cider doughnut\u00a0at the aptly named Carpe Donut truck, one finds oneself thinking about food-truck names. Many\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-11-14T21:15:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2014-11-14T21:39:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"The Soul of Wit\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-14T21:15:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-14T21:39:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\"},\"wordCount\":259,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\",\"keywords\":[\"carpe donut\",\"food truck name generator\",\"food trucks\",\"names\",\"naming\",\"New York\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\",\"name\":\"The Soul of Wit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-11-14T21:15:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-11-14T21:39:50+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein on what goes into the names of food trucks.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/truck_slider_950x300.png\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2014\/11\/14\/the-soul-of-wit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Soul of Wit\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. 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