Blonder Tongue Laboratories

July 2, 2002 12:05 PM

Blonder Tongue?!?!?!?
Scanning through Yahoo's "Anybody and Everybody's Press Release" News, this company name lept out at me. Blonder Tongue Laboratories? Holy Mother of Compost Tumbler! What does it mean? Were the guys who started this company (founded in 1950) named Blonder and Tongue? Does it mean something in a language other than English (babelfish is no help)? Is this electronics firm telling us to "speak Aryan" (a scary corporate message)? Does somebody have really odd pigmentation in his mouth? Or did somebody just open a dictionary to random pages in the corporate registration office?
How would you like to open your cable bill one day and see this company name?
OK, maybe you don't want to know the story behind Blonder Tongue Labs. But what's the funniest, strangest, most non-sequitur (least sequitur?), company name YOU have ever come in contact with? (And, no, I don't have anything more important/serious/relevant for a FPP, thanks for asking.)
posted by wendell (50 comments total)

Yep. Blonder and Tongue.
From their site:

The Company was founded in 1950 by Isaac (Ike) S. Blonder and Ben H. Tongue. It was in the early days of broadcast TV and they saw a need for Booster Amplifiers to improve fringe-area reception. They started with modest beginnings in Yonkers, New York and introduced the first commercially successful Broadband Booster Amplifier. The company soon branched out into master antenna system design and other efforts that earned Ben Tongue some 30 and Ike Blonder 39 patents in the 1960’s. The company grew rapidly and after several moves, consolidated the operations in Old Bridge, New Jersey, where the company still resides. Ben and Ike sold their Blonder Tongue stake in 1989 and both still work with the company engineers as consultants. 

posted by benh57 at 12:08 PM on July 2, 2002

Well, that was a letdown.
posted by ColdChef at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2002

You could have at least googled for this, you know, to provide some more info. Also, no more post disclaimers.. if you're going to apologize for a post, don't post it!
posted by insomnyuk at 12:10 PM on July 2, 2002

ditto
posted by dash_slot- at 12:12 PM on July 2, 2002

There's an insurance agency near where I live called Masters & Servant.
posted by ljromanoff at 12:16 PM on July 2, 2002

this post sucked

and no, i didn't have anything more important/serious/relevant to post
posted by chrisroberts at 12:17 PM on July 2, 2002

I'm guessing MeTa won't be quiet for much longer ('cept for that Meegul guy)
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:22 PM on July 2, 2002

Binky-Griptight, Inc of Wallington, N.J. They made pacifiers!
posted by dmo at 12:24 PM on July 2, 2002

Loss Realty in Toledo, Ohio. It's the least confidence-boosting business name I've ever run across. Cliff Loss named his real estate brokerage after himself and prospered, though.
posted by Holden at 12:32 PM on July 2, 2002

I'll play along: Graves Funeral Home
(sort of)
posted by ColdChef at 12:45 PM on July 2, 2002

I always try to get people to give goofy names, but they rarely do. That's why I was gratified to find on a quick search of the Massachusetts Secretary of State's site (thanks for giving me an assignment that looks so much like work) all of the following actual companies: Pookydink, LLC; Dorkus, Inc. and my new favorite, Doo Dah Day, Inc.
posted by yhbc at 12:49 PM on July 2, 2002

I had always wondered about that Swirlies album, Blonder Tongue Audio Baton.

Now can someone please explain the title of the companion EP, Brokedick Car?
posted by halleck23 at 12:49 PM on July 2, 2002

There's a law firm called Smart & Biggar. Not knee-slappingly hilarious, but smile-inducing nonetheless.
posted by transient at 1:01 PM on July 2, 2002

At first, this post reminded me of the "invest now" spam that I often receive. But then I giggled. Whatever the case, Wendell rules yahoo news...
posted by VulcanMike at 1:14 PM on July 2, 2002

Rinky Dink, Inc.
posted by yhbc at 1:17 PM on July 2, 2002

There's also (or at least last time i drove by) a FAG Bearings just off of I-44 right outside Joplin, Missouri.
posted by Ufez Jones at 1:36 PM on July 2, 2002

I work at a hospital in Florida. We have a doctor with the last name of Summe, pronounced (you guessed it); "sue-me". Hilarity ensues.
posted by shadow45 at 1:40 PM on July 2, 2002

According to producer Jack Endino, the Blonder Tongue Audio Baton is "an all-tube single-channel graphic equalizer, made by Blonder-Tongue Laboratories in 1959."
posted by whuppy at 2:03 PM on July 2, 2002

There's a used car dealership nearby with the name Carson Cars. I went and looked, though, and there's actually only one layer of cars on their lot.

My favorite corporate name is probably Borg-Warner. I'm not sure what they make now, but in the future, surely they will make sensors that warn Starfleet vessels when the Borg are approaching.
posted by kindall at 2:05 PM on July 2, 2002

When I was visiting a friend in Texas (around either Houston or Beaumont, can't remember where we were at the time), we drove past a place called the S & M Designer Outlet. I made him stop so I could get a picture of the sign. I didn't even want to know what was in there...slightly used bullwhips? Overruns in paddles?
posted by SisterHavana at 2:15 PM on July 2, 2002

There's also (or at least last time i drove by) a FAG Bearings

FAG are very familiar in the mechanical engineering world, as they're one of the largest bearing manufacturers in the world, I'm sure you'll all be fascinated to learn.
posted by normy at 2:17 PM on July 2, 2002

This is only really funny if you're 13, but until very recently, on the North Vancouver waterfront, there was a large shipbuilding (or something) company, with their name painted in twenty foot high letters on their roof (and visible for quite a distance): The Erection Shop.
Heh, heh, they said erection. Like I said, you kind of need to be 13...
posted by jokeefe at 2:18 PM on July 2, 2002

Morrison and Foerster, a big law firm in LA has taken to calling themselves "MoFos," even registering the appropriate URL.
posted by mathowie at 2:22 PM on July 2, 2002

There's the Dedman Medical Center in Dallas.
posted by joaquim at 2:29 PM on July 2, 2002

I confess VulcanMike. Still use "MyYahoo" as a start page, and keep a couple of their dorkier news categories on the page, for just such an occasion - hey, it's how I was the first to find out Chuck Jones died...
Yes, insomnyuk, I suspected that a little adequate on-line research would have made the post even more unnecessary. As for post disclaimers, if I had any functioning self-esteem, I'd have my weblog back...
posted by wendell at 2:31 PM on July 2, 2002

I'm guessing MeTa won't be quiet for much longer ('cept for that Meegul guy)
Ufez Jones, I can't stop laughing because as I read the above, then I read the title to the Company again from the post, and your comment. Yes, I read a lot into that.........
posted by thomcatspike at 2:33 PM on July 2, 2002

Boring Business Systems. You don't say.

(I posted a front page thread to this link a long time ago, but the search function is being assy and won't cough it up.)
posted by Skot at 2:36 PM on July 2, 2002

don't confuse mofo.com with MOFOCO
posted by pekar wood at 2:37 PM on July 2, 2002

I was amused when Zany Brainy acquired Noodle Kidoodle.
posted by O9scar at 2:38 PM on July 2, 2002

I have always been fond of business names that have a clever connotation. I once saw an optometrist's office (perhaps in Boston?) with the name : Myoptics.

Yee. ess.
posted by aaronchristy at 2:45 PM on July 2, 2002

I can't place exactly where this Asian restaurant was, back in '90, my date took me to a place that spelled their name like Fuk-U Chinese Restaurant, sorry for the language it is true. Was out near Pomona, Ca. She(my date) was infatuated with her own humor, as the owners were sure to say on your way out, thank you for eating at FuK-U as they thanked you. And no I did not see this on engrish, and make this up. This is also why I didn't date her much longer either, wacky chic as she told me after that, her dad and her always take love one's there so there sure to be told the company name. And yes she was a blond.
posted by thomcatspike at 2:57 PM on July 2, 2002

Several years ago I saw a law firm called Paine Swiney and Tarwater. Cited here.
posted by dmo at 3:10 PM on July 2, 2002

I was going to mention Fag Bearings in Joplin also. I almost crashed taking a picture of that one from the highway.

There's the Dedman Medical Center in Dallas.

I had to call that center once, and I spoke to a woman named Nurse Doom.
posted by rcade at 4:17 PM on July 2, 2002

I kid you not: there is a urologist here in Austin named Richard Chopp and, (in)appropriately enough, he performs lots of vasectomies (I can vouch for his work first hand, uh, myself)
posted by tippiedog at 4:31 PM on July 2, 2002

Destron-Fearing. Among other things, they came up with the microchip technology used in the Digital Angel and VeriChip products made by the Advanced Digital Solutions. Destron-Fearing! No wonder people associated them with the apocalypse.
posted by oddovid at 4:40 PM on July 2, 2002

Wang.
posted by hob at 5:03 PM on July 2, 2002

Crabby Dick's seafood restaurant in Windsor, Ont, for lack of a more subtle example.
posted by Succa at 6:06 PM on July 2, 2002

Well, it's not quite a self link, but I used to run a mobile catering van called...The Doobie Burgers.

[side note, for UK readers - it was nearly called 'The Nolan Sizzlers', it was back in the day..]
posted by dash_slot- at 6:56 PM on July 2, 2002

I don't know -- is it just me, or has anyone else ever thought that Standard & Poor is a remarkably uninspiring name for a company providing "the tools you need to make educated investment and credit decisions"? I mean, if I want to make standard and/or poor investment and credit decisions, I don't need help doing it. What I'm really looking for is Undervalued & Guaranteedtomakeyourich.
posted by picopebbles at 7:11 PM on July 2, 2002

The law firm near my old house used to be "Bradley and Hiscock" until Mr. Wright became a partner and put an end to all the fun.
posted by krunk at 7:16 PM on July 2, 2002

Piss tests! All around!
posted by ponchogaddo at 7:39 PM on July 2, 2002

kindall, Borg Warner make car parts and used to make transmissions (still do?)
posted by dg at 8:23 PM on July 2, 2002

Yes, insomnyuk, I suspected that a little adequate on-line research would have made the post even more unnecessary.

Actually, the post turned into something really unique and hilarious.
posted by insomnyuk at 8:38 PM on July 2, 2002

Urologist in Tampa, FL. -- Dr. Cockburn. (pronounces it Co-burn).
posted by RunsWithBandageScissors at 8:51 PM on July 2, 2002

Apparently there's a stripmall in New Jersey with a Dick's, Siemans, BJ's and USA Baby.
posted by kittyloop at 9:31 PM on July 2, 2002

Wongdoody, an ad agency.
posted by euphorb at 10:33 PM on July 2, 2002

Urologist in Tampa, FL. -- Dr. Cockburn. (pronounces it Co-burn)

As do most Cockburns, I am sure.
posted by kindall at 11:07 PM on July 2, 2002

Not a company name, but I always found the name of the Archbishop of Manila amusing: Cardinal Sin
posted by thewittyname at 5:57 AM on July 3, 2002

There's a place in Myrtle Beach, SC called Captain Dick's Water Sports.
posted by onhazier at 6:51 AM on July 3, 2002

Law firm called "Dewey, Cheatum and Howe". (Hee Hee).
posted by sharksandwich at 7:17 AM on July 3, 2002