Having the name Budz seems almost too fitting for the co-owner of a store that sells — among other items — marijuana buds.
But Brian Budz, one of the owners of New Vansterdam, said despite the occasional giggle or disbelieving wink, it really is his last name.
“It’s Polish, actually,” Budz said. “And I honestly have no earthly idea what it means.”
The name was shortened from something else when his ancestors came to Ellis Island, but no current family members know what it was shortened from, he said.
“I actually spent a good chunk of my college years looking for it, but I couldn’t find anything,” Budz said.
Still, he admits it is quite fitting for a pot shop owner.
“Maybe I should start telling people it’s my nom de guerre, just to mix things up,” Budz said. “But yes, it is my real last name.”
The Golding touch
Another local retailer stocks a popular product with a brand name that seems just too colorful to be anything but a description: Cougar Gold cheese.
The bookstore at Washington State University Vancouver sells a lot of cans of the cheese. Actually, the colorful name is not a perfect match for the product, since Cougar Gold is a crumbly white cheddar.
“Gold” is a tribute to dairy professor Norman Golding, who developed the cheese. According to the WSU creamery, “He discovered how to can cheese without carbon dioxide building up and exploding” the metal containers.
“Before plastic was used to package food items, cheese was commonly encased in wax. But the wax often cracked,” according to the creamery’s website. “When World War II started, the government and the American Can Co. helped fund Golding’s research.”
Off Beat lets members of The Columbian news team step back from our newspaper beats to write the story behind the story, fill in the story or just tell a story.
