Eli Whitney

New Haven is really proud of Eli Whitney. His name is everywhere. I work for Kaiser Whitney Staffing, I work on Whitney Avenue, we go to church on Whitney Avenue. There's the Yale Payne-Whitney Gymnasium, the Whitney Humanities Center, Whitney Lake, Whitney Terrace, Whitney Tower apartments, Eli's on Whitney Restaurant, Whitney Medical Library, Whitney Grove, Whitney Manor....do you get the idea? SO, it's a little embarrassing to be named Whitney in this town. There is one benefit however - for the first time in my life, I am more likely to hear a joke about the cotton gin than a poorly sung excerpt from a bad Whitney Houston song when I meet new people. I always hoped people would get sick of the Whitney Houston comments, but it took moving to a quaint New England town for that to finally happen. Everyone here knows how to spell my name too. It's great.