We spent endless hours trying to convince many executives at Eastern Airlines that Eastern was a bad name for airlines. Especially when that airline flies to the West Coast.

Worse, "Eastern" is not even synonymous with "good service". (Western maybe, Eastern definitely not.)

The East, especially New York City, is synonymous with brash, rude, curt, and insolent behavior. (It's a rough place and moves so fast that there's no time for life's niceties.)

Former astronaut Frank Borman(129), Eastern's president at the time, disagreed. What we overlooked, Mr. Borman wrote to us, was the fact that "the name has a history of about 47 years."

(Eastern Airlines continued to live until it was 60 years old before filing for bankruptcy protection.)