What’s in a Logo?

When we first started this adventure, I needed to come up with a name for the practice.

I wasn’t going to name it after myself.  That’s not in my nature.  And realistically I have about a decade left, and if we can make this work, I’m hoping the practice can outlast me. So unless there’s another, younger Pediatric Cardiologist named Patrick Flynn who will want to do exactly this, it would make for a clumsy transition to somebody else.

I didn’t want to name it after a geographic location, like “Yorkville” or “Second Avenue,” in case we ever move it, or find enough success to add another location.  I don’t want people to think that some tectonic shift moved a doctor’s office into their ‘hood, or that it might slide down the hill to another location at any time.

I really did want a New York name though, because honestly there’s no place like this city, and so I became enamored with calling it “Gotham City Pediatric Cardiology.” It’s so New York, and the legacy of its use as a surrogate name for our town goes back to the original Batman comic in 1939, so there’s no patient or parent (and hardly any grandparent) who hasn’t known it for their whole life.

I grew up in the Adam West 1960’s.  I was five when the ABC Batman series premiered.  I can still remember it.  In my mind’s eye it was the first thing I had ever seen in color, on my great-aunt Sophie’s brand new Philco set.  Now I’m wondering now how Aunt Sophie scored a color TV in 1965.  The inflation-adjusted cost of that set is close to $5000. She didn’t have that kind of dough.  She was a meek old lady, but I wonder if she may have been up to no good.  Maybe she was playing the numbers.  I’m going to pretend she won a raffle from now on.

Back to the Batman pilot…..What a ride it was!  Just when you thought that Batman and Robin were going to crack the Riddler’s plot, somebody spiked Batman’s orange juice while he was dancing the Batusi at the What A Way To Go-Go (the caped crusader has to follow a lead no matter what dangerous destination it leads him) and he was now incapable of driving the Batmobile to the rescue (“Batman!  You’re in no condition to drive.”)  Plot twist!  Who saw that one coming?!  Eventually, though, he and Robin (luckily too young to enter the discotheque and therefore unable to be incapacitated  by a wayward screwdriver) prevailed, as it was immediately obvious that they would for every one of the 120 episodes to follow.

That show was a comforting escape, in 25 minute aliquots.  It really was a live action cartoon, in primary colors, with a nod and a wink, and with villains so preposterous that they could never be the least bit threatening.  Unless you want to count Lulu Schultz, but only because, let’s face it, Ethel Merman was always a little bit overwhelming. When there was any violence (that is, when a punch landed), an emphatic graphic would pop up on the screen announcing “POW!,” or “KLONK!, or “BIFF!”   What the heck does “BIFF!” even mean, other than the name of Willy Loman’s wayward son or the bully who forced George McFly to do his homework? I guess Biff is the common thread in three classics of the American artform: “Death of a Salesman,” “Back to the Future” and “Batman.”  One of those probably doesn’t belong.  Maybe two.

If the original Batman were on the air now, and the Golden Globes recognized it, it would firmly be planted in the comedy category.  It’s way funnier than “The Bear.”

And thanks to that, people have been watching Batman in some way shape or form ever since.  The term “Gotham City” has universal recognition, and to my generation it brings a warm glow.  Most importantly, the notion that there’s a hero out there (in blue tights, at that), who can be summoned at any time by shining a light in the sky, is really reassuring.

Riddle me this, by the way:  If you needed Batman during the day, how would he ever know?  Would you have to wait until dark?  Did crime in Gotham City spike during the summer because of the longer days?  Seems like a major plot hole to me.

Anyway I loved the name, and charged our good friends at Deck Doctors (more than good friends: the founder and CEO is my son!) to come up with a logo, and in the parlance of the iconic series, it was nothing short of BOFFO!

But……..

In reality the modern movies are pretty dark, and really scary.  The 2014 Fox series “Gotham,” as rollicking a good time as it was, painted a dystopian city that doesn’t inspire the same coziness as the original Batman series stirred in my generation.  Nobody wants to live anywhere near that Gotham.  When a child, or a family, is faced with a Pediatric Cardiology visit, it’s really our job to make them start feeling reassured even before they arrive.  No sense conjuring Bane when they walk in the door.

And moreover, I really didn’t feel like looking over my shoulder all the time for someone from DC Comics showing up at my door and challenging the use of the name of a fictional city, even for a children’s medical office.  Holy Aggravation, Batman!

So we scrapped “Gotham City Pediatric Cardiology” and went back to the drawing board.  I pondered other New York references until my wife - way more clever than I - decided to go another route and look for  a uniquely personal name for the practice.  She actually pulled out the obituaries of my parents and sent me a list of possibilities, including such candidates as Locust Point, Fort McHenry, Heron Bay, Oriole, and the immediate winner, “Avalon.” 

It’s a much better name.  It sounds great.  It means a lot to me.  And if reading the blurb about the name that’s on a separate page of the website (and on the wall outside exam room 3) makes you dust off the 1990 Barry Levinson film that inspired it, well, then I would have done you a favor before you even set foot in the office.

But even though we scrapped the name we just couldn’t part with the logo.  So we kept it. The skyline says “Home” and the Heartsignal,  as I call it, says that help is on the way.  And, honestly, “AVALON” fits on it much better than the longer “GOTHAM CITY.”

It’s still so New York.  So…Gotham, without the risk of copyright infringement.  

It’s a big city.  There’s a lot to love and a lot to be anxious about. That’s why we live here, for the stimulation and for the challenge. It’s like no place else on earth.   But if what you’re worried about is some concern - yours,  your child’s,  your Pediatrician’s, your school nurse’s - about your child’s heart, then just dial our number or click the link on the homepage, and let’s get to work, quickly and comfortably.  Let’s  get your family through this and back out there to life as you know it, hopefully in one episode.  POW!

It’s not as easy as shining a light into the sky, but it’s close, and it works in the daytime, too. 

Just don’t expect the blue tights.  Nobody wants to see that.