Washington doesn’t have a lock on weirdness. Join us as we look back on another year of crazy business news. In 2017, city leaders fell over themselves for Amazon’s attention — some even made a marriage proposal. Our favorite coffee purveyors tried on new identities. A federal agency went to war on love. A Quincy kitchen infused new meaning to baked pizza. And a certain retail giant marched middle-aged men into a swimming pool.

HOW OUTSIDERS SPELL BAHSTON

Target put the “cheap’’ in “cheap chic’’ with its new line of shirts highlighting Boston neighborhoods. Misspellings of “Jamaca Plain,’’ “Mission Hills’’ and “Southy’’ were bad enough. Then there was the new neighborhood, “Central,’’ imposed on a map where the North End and Beacon Hill should be. Looks like Sully’s Brand was on to something when the North Shore T-shirt­ company took out a full-page Herald ad two years ago that chastised Target for using a New York artist­ to make its Boston shirts.

THE Amazon ‘I DO’

Everyone wanted in on the Amazon HQ2 sweepstakes. The Baker administration proffered some 26 proposals, several involving multiple towns. Even the bid from Boston that focused on Suffolk Downs included a hodgepodge of alternative sites. The odds of Amazon’s picking a remote mill in the Berkshires or a municipal golf course in New Bedford are slim, at best. But give credit to one group of long-shot bidders: The Merrimack Valley folks turned their bid into one long marriage proposal entitled “Let’s Get Merri’d,’’ shipped with a fake diamond ring. At least it wasn’t the 21-foot-tall cactus loaded onto a truck, part of a pitch from ­Arizona, that Amazon promptly rejected.

BIGGEST MARKETING MISFIRE

Gillette has been routinely sending “welcome to manhood’’ packages with a new razor inside to guys on their 18th birthdays, along with a note bragging that “your first real shave will get you pretty damn close’’ to becoming a man. But The New York Times reported that plenty of women got those packages, too. And some didn’t seem to mind: One woman told the Times that while the razor wasn’t ideal for shaving her legs, “I used it because, hey, free razor, those things are expensive.’’ Runner­ up: An effort by business leaders to rebrand the Pioneer Valley as “West Mass.’’ Mercifully, that was canned.

BY ANY OTHER NAME . . .

You may have noticed that many new luxury apartment complexes ­carry some pretentious names, such as the Kensington, the Eddy, and the Allele. Not much harm in that, as long as the name doesn’t suggest anything untoward. But the new complex in the Fenway from construction giant Skanska? The Harlo. Skanska reps say it is derived from the word “haven.’’ While not Merriam-Webster, the online Urban Dictionary offers two other meanings: foraging through dustbins, and one with a more sexual connotation.

SPEAKING OF . . .

“Orsted’’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. But it’s a far cry from the company’s previous name, which didn’t quite work out as well in English as in the original Danish. One European company trying to build a big windmill farm off the Massachusetts coast was previously known as Dong Energy, an acronym of sorts for Danish Oil and Natural Gas. On this side of the Atlantic, that name prompted plenty of laughs, and a few crude jokes. So we now have Orsted, a reference to Hans Christian Orsted, the Thomas Edison of Denmark. Although it also could be the name of a new luxury apartment complex.

INSERT ‘BAKED’ JOKES HERE

Forget about the Lynnwood or Town Spa. The boldest new pizza south of Boston can be found at the ­region’s first medical marijuana dispensary, run by Ermont Inc. in Quincy. The staff prepares six-inch, personal-size pies in Ermont’s kitchen, where they are infused with a THC distillate, baked, and then frozen for sale. Ermont CEO Jack Hudson announced the new product by saying: “It was a delight to make.’’ Yeah, we bet it was.

QUIRKIEST PUBLICITYDiscount king TJX drew attention to its Sierra Trading Post outdoor apparel stores by poking fun at the extreme sports sometimes featured in rivals’ ads. TJX produced a video of “Cliff, Diving’’ — or, more accurately, diving by guys named Cliff — for a social media campaign. The Framingham company took shots of everyday people named Cliff diving into a swimming pool in suburban New Jersey (although it really looked more like belly-flopping). Runner up: For JetBlue, ad agency MullenLowe created a line of “office souvenirs’’ to remind people to take a vacation once in a while. Think mugs with the phrase, “Let’s circle back on that,’’ and beach towels emblazoned with Excel spreadsheets.

BREWS BUDDIES

Remember Keurig Kold, the 2016 flop? After failing to persuade soda fans about the merits of its expensive soda maker, Keurig Green Mountain might be looking for a better reception among beer drinkers. The company disclosed it was working on an “in-home alcohol drink system’’ with Anheuser-Busch InBev this year in Massachusetts and Vermont. Details remain scant, making us wonder just how much drinking is part of this “R&D joint venture.’’

WHAT’S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT?

That’s exactly what the Food and Drug Administration wanted to know. The federal agency inspected the Nashoba Brook Bakery, and among its list of “insanitary’’ conditions and other infractions was the Concord bakery’s claiming that “love’’ is an ingredient in its granola. In language only a bureaucrat could write, the FDA told Nashoba to remove “love’’ from the label: ‘‘ ‘Love’ is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material.’’

MEET THE NEW BOSS

John Flannery’s opening act as General Electric’s new CEO included cutting thousands of jobs, and cutting some perks for those who are still around. Goodbye corporate jets, and forget about that helipad. But he really created a chill by moving the company’s annual retreat for executives from Boca Raton, Fla., to Boston — in January. One former executive, speaking to The Wall Street Journal, quipped: “There’s no time for sunshine.’’

DON’T GIVE UP A GOOD THING

Dunks. Dunkies. Double D. Few people call Dunkin’ Donuts by its full name — Dunkin’ suffices for many of us. But there’s something a bit unholy about seeing a Dunkin’ Donuts store, like the one that opened on Tremont Street, without the “Donuts’’ in its name. Its reps say the company is just testing an alternative, and nothing official has been decided. A warning to the suits at the Canton headquarters: New Englanders hold onto traditions, clutching them as tightly as a cup of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee on a frigid day.

Jon Chesto can be reached at jon.chesto@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jonchesto.