Chicago's snowplow naming contest is back
If you start thinking about it, you can quickly get sucked in.
Especially if you're already vulnerable to thinking about snow removal equipment.
Yes, it's time again for Chicagoans to start submitting names for the third annual "You Name a Snowplow Contest."
Like an announcement over the high school public announcement system during homeroom, the city released the details Monday, and it's time again for the city's jokesters sitting in the back row (or any of the city's 50 wards) to give it their best shot.
"Chicago residents are once again encouraged to create innovative snowplow names and submit them to shovels.chicago.gov by January 4, 2025," the city's announcement read.
Submissions are limited to one per person and 50 characters in length.
When the submission period closes Jan. 4, or when the city receives 20,000 submissions, whichever comes first, the Department of Streets and Sanitation staff will choose 50 finalists.
The next phase of the contest begins Jan. 10 when residents will have an 11-day window to vote for their six favorite names.
The top six vote-getters will be featured on one snowplow in each of the City’s six snow districts.
Signage for the winning snowplow names will be created and installed on the massive trucks and residents who submitted the winning names (earliest time stamp when there are multiple submissions) will be offered a photo opportunity with the named snowplow along with city swag.
For inspiration (and to avoid repeats), here are the names of previous winners:
- Mrs. O’Leary’s Plow
- Da Plow
- Salter Payton
- Sears Plower
- Sleet Home Chicago
- Holy Plow!
- Jean Baptiste Point du Shovel
- Skilling It
- CTRL-SALT-DELETE
- Casimir Plowaski
- Ernie Snowbanks
- Mies van der Snow
- Bad, Bad Leroy Plow