I hope your hoo-ha gets better.

(Remember: nothing smaller than your elbow.)

If you could find a way to stop juggling for a bit the swelling might go down.

I'm pretty impressed you can juggle with your genitals. Best I can do is spin a basketball.

Juggling is nothing. It's a freaking clown car down there.

A friend of mine has actually just given his new-born son the middle name "Danger".

I'm afraid I know of several friends-of-friends who have done that exact thing. I think it's the name equivalent of saddling your kid with a tattoo that was out-of-date before the kid was ever born.

What's impressive about a prenatal tattoo is not that it was done well, but that it was done at all.

Just because you have a tribal arm band tattoo doesn't mean you got tattoo'd back when those were in style.

I wonder what people think of me based on the girls' names. I know I've said this before, but if we end up adopting Nia, I might split her long combo name into its two constituent parts in large part because she's the only one in the world and we might have reasons to not want her to be immediately findable. But I feel a little bad about that. Also wish I knew how to pronounce her current middle name, but I pronounce Mara's Spanish middle name the Spanish way rather than her mom's way.

De-psueding because otherwise it makes no sense to comment that my dad wanted to name me Justin. Thanks mom for vetoing that.

My sister gave her little boy the middle name "Grizzly". Aaaand she happened to marry a guy with the last name "Adams". The universe rewarded her with a little boy who is far and away the biggest weenie of the clan. When I was visiting in Jan. I tried to introduce him to the WWE style playing that my girls clamored for and my brother's boys make me do until my arms are on fire. Grizz promptly burst into tears and ran to hide behind my sister.

My friend's mom had always wanted to name her future son Peter, but unfortunately married a Mr. Abbots, and decided against it.

If your last name is "Seed", you could just embrace it.

My mother grew up next door to a boy named Robin Hood.

I've known at least two Michael Hunts. One of them, his middle name was Valentine, which made me speculate that the first-last name combo was not accidental.

A friend of mine has actually just given his new-born son the middle name "Danger".

A good friend of mine and oud's from college did that for both his kids. He also gave them a pile of other middle names, so they have plenty of options for how to identify themselves. I think "Perseverance" was one of them.

There's always "Obedienta".

I don't get 13. Pete Abbots?

I had a couple of high school classes with Jack Knopf.

19: Peter Rabbit(s).

Peter, not Pete. Peter Rabbits.

I had heard rumors of teeth but did not know they could juggle.

Someone I talked to on my trip (giant blur, now occluded by workaday misery) made a joke about hipster parents naming their kid "Denim" and it struck me as really funny. Maybe I heard it on tv. Blur.

The middle name Danger is acceptable only if the first name is Nick and the child has a rare ophthalmic condition.

I'm sure I've mentioned that I was at school with a kid called Willie Dix. The strange bit is that he could easily have called himself Bill or some other version, but no...

Also argh Danger. Special place in parenting hell. Why not just give them "Take My Wife....Please!" as a middle name?

It is fairly easy to change your name in Va. If anyone wants to change their name to Mutombo, please let me know.

a condition involving my private parts which is equal parts embarrassing and excruciating

Hemorrhoids?

I used to work for a guy called James Bond. I would guess that he was born in the late 50s...

I had a couple of high school classes with Jack Knopf.

There was a Happy Hussey at mine. Facebook tells me she took her husband's name when she married.

I went to a college with a girl named Leda Swann. I always wondered whether her parents had read about Leda and the Swan but then forgotten about the whole Jove/swan-sexual-assault piece of the story and only retained the idea that "Leda" sounded euphonious with "Swann".

And then it has just occurred to me that the name sounds like "Lead A Swan", as in "you can lead a swan to water", etc.

Also, there are way too many incredibly creepy paintings on the Leda/Swan theme.

hipster parents naming their kid "Denim"

This was in the NYT article about hipsters moving out of Brooklyn to the suburbs.

And then it has just occurred to me that the name sounds like "Lead A Swan", as in "you can lead a swan to water", etc.

This was part of a mnemonic I was taught - "Europa bull, but you Leda Swan" to keep track of who gets turned into what.

The bartender on our first date was Kevin Bacon, whom I knew from grade school. He would have been born in the mid-late '70s and now has a child at Nia's school.

I know a K/irk Cam/eron who got unfortunately super Christian later in life.

The thing about naming decisions, though, is that unless you do something idiotic like "Danger", or at least very outre, they're so bleached of meaning after the first couple of months. I can't think of when I've thought about someone's name (again, barring the seriously ridiculous) in terms of it having been the result of an actual decision.

Possibly they color how people think of you, but I doubt there's much of an effect at all.

Interviewing witnesses, I ran into a Candace Cane once. That's a little hard to explain unless you want your kid to grow up to be a holiday-themed stripper.

12 is such a great story -- "Grizzly Adams: Mama's Boy" would be a nice name for an Adult Swim show.

I had a college floormate who was dating a girl named "Robin Williams." Whenever they were having sex in the dorm room, the guy next door, who happened to own the movie soundtrack, would play the real RW going "GOOD MORNING VIETNAM" over and over again. I guess this was assholish, and eventually they broke up.

This was part of a mnemonic I was taught - "Europa bull, but you Leda Swan" to keep track of who gets turned into what.

In each case, it's Zeus who gets turned into the animal.

We have mostly decided on a name, but we're keeping it private for now, in part because we might change our minds, and in part because it's driving my mother up the wall.
"Do you two call the baby by his name?"
"Sometimes."
"Are you going to tell me?!?"
"No."
"Maybe you'll make a mistake and slip up and tell me!"

shiv has taken to referring to the baby as Helmut in all conversations with his family.

That's a little hard to explain unless you want your kid to grow up to be a holiday-themed stripper.

Wasn't there an Olympian this past summer with a super unfortunate name along the lines of "Ivana Be A Pole-Dancer" or something?

Destiny Hooker, I think.

I can't think of when I've thought about someone's name (again, barring the seriously ridiculous) in terms of it having been the result of an actual decision.

Between me and Jammies, strangers ask us about our names all the time.

Am I totally making this up, or don't we have a commenter with a kid whose middle name is Danger? (TJ and Bonsaisue?)

Or rather, acquaintances.

If they did, it's charming that they did it and I meant no offense above.

Similarly, if anyone has a tribal arm band tattoo, yours is not dated.

I've known at least two Michael Hunts. One of them, his middle name was Valentine, which made me speculate that the first-last name combo was not accidental.

Maybe it was less an old dirty joke and more a Stranger in a Stranger Land reference.

42: Funny, I would have guessed that for Jammies, given that his name is so ethnically marked for an ethnicity he isn't, but I would have figured that yours, while certainly weird, would have made it into the category of weird enough to notice once on first hearing, but never mention again. I guess the spelling, running the two names together as one word rather than hyphenating or putting a space between them (for readers who don't know, think Marykate instead of Mary Kate or Mary-Kate) might be enough to trigger a stronger reaction.

45: I nearly got one in Samoa and am so glad I didn't.

41: Yes, though Destinee, I believe.

Jammies gets asked more often than I do, to be sure. For me, it's mostly along the lines of "You don't seem southern at all." And the confusion whenever I introduce myself - the other person often volunteers their last name after hearing my first name.

shiv has taken to referring to the baby as Helmut in all conversations with his family

Some friends called their kid Wolfgang when it was in utero, and there were a couple of people who didn't realize it was a joke and were slightly disappointed to later find he was actually called [popular boy name].

35 -- I don't get this. Names have a story, which may or may not be interesting to strangers. My daughter has my grandmother's first name as her middle name, and as it's one of the virtues, people react to it, even if they don't know anything about my grandmother. My son's middle name is that of my mother-in-law's brother, who was drafted at a very young age -- too young to watch a racy movie when he came home on leave -- and didn't survive WWII.

My middle name is the same as my father's uncle -- who took in my father and his siblings when they were orphaned. He never knew it, but I'm not named after him, but instead after a college friend of my parents who had my combination first and middle name, and they liked the sound of it. A lame story, but 'in your face, surrogate father' has a certain timelessness to it.

Sorry you're not feeling well, Heebie. It's a growing trend among my acquaintances to keep the name secret until after the head crowns or something. I don't know why. I told everyone my son's name.

Sorry you're not feeling well, Heebie. It's a growing trend among my acquaintances to keep the name secret until after the head crowns or something. I don't know why. I told everyone my son's name.

sorry for the double

My wife and I have always been atheists (as have both sets of parents and, so I understand, 3 of the 4 grandparents on each side - we are traditionalists that way). Anyway, I've been cracked on the boy's name "Jesse" since college or HS, so when our son was born (lo these many years ago), I was able to prevail on the little woman to name him Jesse (after batting down the equally venerable alternatives of Nebuchadnezzar and Tutankhamen). When he was 3 weeks old, I thought to look up what it meant: the joke was on us!

Something similar happened with our daughter, whose name was also a joke on us though somewhat less so.

Like many traditionalists, we are also slow learners.

My dad wanted to name me Zephaniah, which was vetoed, and probably just as well.

I have a friend whose kids are Mil/lie, Vio/let, and Bus/ter - short for Milli/volt, Ultra/violet, and Com/busion, respectively. (googleproofed because it's not a combination that comes up very often). I go back and forth as to whether I think that that's awesome or terrible.

I always wondered whether her parents had read about Leda and the Swan but then forgotten about the whole Jove/swan-sexual-assault piece of the story

The naming board on a pregnancy forum I sometimes visit is full of this kind of thing. Things I really don't think you should name your daughter:

Ophelia
Persephone (this one is not as terrible)
Lavinia

Another one I've always wondered about is Tamar, which seems to be relatively common in Israel? I've known a handful of Israeli Tamars, anyway. Why would you give your child the name of someone raped by her brother?

I think I've mentioned that I went to high school with a dude named O/mar S/hariff, which actually didn't result in any mockery that I'm aware of (since neither Dr. Zhivago nor bridge strategy were particular high on anyone's make-funnery lists) but strikes me as somewhat odd because surely his parents had seen it.

I have a friend named Pandora, which is an awesome name for her but probably too strong for a lot of people.

Heebie:

I hope you feel better quickly.

I know several Tamars and Tamaras. They don't all have to be named after the first one.

I mean, the second one. I guess this is the first one.

They don't all have to be named after the first one.

Sure, of course not. But I'm puzzled that the Biblical reference doesn't loom larger.

14: A classmate.

I can understand why parents don't share the name ahead of time, but we personally have shared the name ahead of time with each kid.

Now, the pseudonym - I would never share that ahead of time.

But (as I just now learned) there's more than one biblical Tamar!

63: She's the hero of the last part of Joseph and his Brothers.

Now, the pseudonym - I would never share that ahead of time.

Yes but my guess is that people are going to figure out who ass-face is right quick.

I think Jael is a fantastic biblical name. Also Judith.

I also like that name, although I've only seen it as Ya'el.

A friend of ours is having a girl, so we have been suggesting good names. Flower names are trendy - she'd be the only Umbellifer in her class! How about a princess name like Hermenegild? Or a classical name like Manto?

I don't think we have suggested Wry Cooter yet. That's still available, right?

Seems like Adolf is due for a revival.

I was just googling a band I recently discovered and found out that one of their guitarists is named Br/inton T/ench C/oxe. What a great name, even if it sounds like something out of Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. Apparently he was named after a historical personage.

I'm thinking Oedipus and Judas are not yet due for a comeback.

Things I really don't think you should name your daughter:

Ophelia
Persephone (this one is not as terrible)
Lavinia

I was at school with a Cordelia...

Also on the list of unfortunate daughters: Virginia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verginia

57. If they have another boy, can I propose Astrolabe?

If I have a girl one day I'm going to try my best to name her Livia.

I like the Genesis Tamar. She plays Judah for a fool, and I like people who stick it to patriarchs.

I like people who stick it to patriarchs.

I'm forwarding this remark to your children.

We know an Ophelia. She loathes it, definitely holds the decision against her parents, and goes by Lia.

78: One of my best HS friends is named that! She has lived up to it well.

I'm forwarding this remark to your children.

Well played.

If you are Livia you get to choose whether to live up to Livia Drusilla or Livia Soprano!

I was thinking of Augie's wife.

Or Anna L. Plurabelle?

Most of the old testament names have wonderful ambiguities.

Isaac: means laughter, and/or an unexpected and beloved late arrival for patents with fertility issues. Also signifies that his father is willing to kill him. (also my son's name)

Esther: heroic stripper/whore.

Mordecai: heroic pimp.

Moses: especially amusing for an adopted child. Renounced his adoptive family and killed his adoptive parents' oldest son.

killed his adoptive parents' oldest son

Is that right?

88: Oh! Along with all the other oldest Egyptian sons! I would say that was G-d not Moses, though.

86: I do like that one.

My dad spent many years lobbying for me to call a son Isaac. And then when I had a son and called him Elijah, my dad complained that that was too biblical, which made me laugh. So then I showed him that Isaac Asimov had written several stories about an Elijah and that cheered him up.

Re 59 - when pregnant with kid A, I was quite keen on the name Vinny, mostly because the idea of the name of an old horror actor being completely innocuous to his classmates but amusing anyone of my age and up appealed greatly. Fortunately I had a girl.

I'm forwarding this remark to your children.

I'm not much of a patriarch. This conversation happened today:

[Caroline is leaving for school]
Molly: Have fun at school!
Me: Bring honor and glory to the family!
Caroline [to me]: No, thank you.
Me: Ok.

We are currently on the receiving end of the silent treatment from Scomber Mix's parents, who are royally pissed that we named the baby Teapot Zucchini Mix Bathyscaphe (three given names, one surname). Mostly it's the surname that has earned their ire,* but also they hate Teapot Zucchini, even though Teapot is a fine strong name and Zucchini was Scomber's grandfather's name. They also blame us because Scomber's mom now doesn't want to go visit her own family, because she would have to explain to them how we've gone so far astray. So they are refusing to come visit their first grandchild.

(Also it turns out that they're angry, many years on, that I'm Bathyscaphe rather than Mix. (Not that they've ever called me Bathyscaphe, of course.) They have gone so far as to write to my parents to take them to task for failing to raise an adequately traditional daughter. My parents read the letter and howled with laughter, bless them.)

* Fun bonus: we have told them that TZ's future sibling will be a Mix. They have told us not to waste their time with false promises, because in our demographic the odds are that we won't have another child. Thanks, guys!

Holy shit, man.

They have gone so far as to write to my parents to take them to task for failing to raise an adequately traditional daughter.

Man oh man oh man. It's really hard to imagine circumstances where someone would receive a letter like that and feel chastised.

Wow. What a complete pain in the ass they are.

J.H.C.

95: Godless liberal.

They have gone so far as to write to my parents to take them to task for failing to raise an adequately traditional daughter. My parents read the letter and howled with laughter, bless them.)

The upside is that they did this and now you have a boggling story to tell instead of just horrible in-laws who resent you and won't visit their grandchild.

I admit that Bathyscape Mix sounds like an unfortunately toothbreaking snack product.

There's the famous Krystal Ball. Wikipedia tells us that her father, whose physics dissertation was on crystals, chose the name.

GB forgot to mention Papa Mix's other demographic objection to the "2nd baby will be named Mix" plan, namely, that the 2nd baby might not get the all-important Y chromosome.

That's awful. You can rest assured, though, that one day they will wake up and realize that they've acted like idiots.

Either that or you'll get increasingly entertaining stories to share with us.

On the other hand, even if she (Teapot Zucchini's hypothetical little sister) doesn't have a Y chromosome, you could raise her in an inadequately traditional manner and so allow her to carry on the Mix name while violating the grandparental Mix sensibilities. This seems like a suitably cunning plan to me.

93: Holy toledo. That is pretty extreme. My sympathies.

People do seem to react very, VERY strongly to the "insubordination" of not taking the husband/father's name. I kind of thought that would have worn off by now, but 30-some years in it seems to be going strong.

(I had a female friend whose own mother routinely addressed letters/packages to "Mrs. Husband'sFirstname Husband'sName," notwithstanding the fact that she had retained her birth-given name upon her -- startlingly late, age 33! -- marriage.)

*Maybe it was 34.

Now I want to have a baby so I can name her or him, Teapot Zucchini.

105 is very appealing.

People do seem to react very, VERY strongly to the "insubordination" of not taking the husband/father's name.

And every time, it makes me at least briefly regret not just giving Jane just plain Shrub as a last name instead of Shrub-Out. Stick it to the man! Though these days she rejects all surnames with vigor anyhow, and insists instead that her full name is Janey/bear Cas/sandra.

109: Mara usually insists her last name is LeeLast-BirthLast, since that starts with the same letter and sound as mine, which belongs there. I think it's kind of cute.

Mara's mom gave her girls her last name and her boys their dads' last names. I've seen this mentioned as one option on feminist blogs and so forth, but I suspect is viewed differently when it's a poor black mom doing the naming.

105 is awesome but the reality of the situation is not. Ugh, people!

109: Right, exactly. Sticking it to the man was part of the appeal of this scheme for me. (A small part, but part.) Whereas Papa Mix says—and this is very nearly a direct quote—any non-traditional choice makes a statement and is therefore wrong.

Add my voice to the chorus of WTFs.

I know another guy who faced familial ire when he and his wife gave their firstborn the wife's last name. His aunts made much of the fact that his father (the baby's paternal grandfather) was dead, and what an insult to the dead. (No that doesn't make any sense.)

I honestly haven't gotten any negative reaction ever on having a different surname from Jammies, or the kids having a new surname altogether than either of us. (We both have short last names, and the last letter of Jammies' surname is the first letter of mine, so we didn't bother with a hyphen.)

If I had to guess, this is because:
1. no one in my family cares
2. Jammies' family might care but are socially gracious people
3. Do people outside a family even ever care about such a thing?

I do truly appreciate the "and while you're at it, how could you give him a lovely festive middle name from our side of the family and a nice solid extremely non-weird first name! YOU MONSTERS!"

The bit that totally baffles me is that the elder Mixes look at this decision and conclude that I have no respect for family names and lineage. No, actually, I really love the Bathyscaphe name and family history, and I would prefer not to see that heritage buried on grounds of my own inadequate Yfulness.

Also! Seriously, you're going to argue about respect for family, and also let something like this keep you from visiting your family?

106: My mom does that. I kept my name. Sometimes she hyphenates my name with shiv's. Sometimes she alternates the order in which she hyphenates it. I'm assuming I broke my mom's brain.

Sorry your in-laws are being assholes. I can't imagine valuing a name over spending time with their grandson.

SO JEALOUS of reason 2 in 113. Though I guess we get better stories, so that's something.

We never got family negativity over hyphenating (although there was a successful hissyfit from Buck's family when he told them he was planning to drop his birth name entirely and take mine) (not my idea, he'd never liked his birth name much). But my family are (a) pretty feminist (b) strongly in favor of their side winning anything that could be perceived as winnable, so the more of my name that made it through the better and (c) fairly polite about this sort of thing, so they wouldn't have been negative about anything that wasn't actively funny, like changing our names to "Starchild". Buck's family either didn't mind the hyphenation or were relieved by it as a compromise that left their name visible at all.

113.3: We have been the subject of good-natured gossip at the dentist's office. shiv is on my insurance, but without the same last name? "Is he your.. .friend? or boyfriend?" What will these liberal professors get up to next?

My dad is not only supportive of my decision to keep my last name, he is also the only person who mails me things addressed to Dr. Blume Blumelastname.

When he submitted all the info to the funeral home for them to write up the standard-form obituary for my mom, they came back with her listed as being survived by "Blume Tweetylastname and husband Tweety Tweetylastname of Cambridge, MA." He corrected them, and they returned with "Blume Tweetylastname-Blumelastname and husband Tweety Tweetylastname of Cambridge, MA." They finally got it right on the third try.

I think I've told you about the my friends from college that the husband took his wife's last name and his father responded by not talking to him for several years.

I believe the father got over it by the time there were grandchildren.

A few years ago, I showed Papa Mix a list of GB's Bathyscaphe ancestors, which leads back into important places and events in American history. His response, which I have since quoted back to him, was that, yes, this was interesting, but patrilineal family trees were mere curiosities.

Teapot Zucchini is a great name, but maybe more fit for a Zappa than a Bathyscaphe.

120: Sifu is his first name, and Tweety is his last name. You don't have to take your husband's name, but I think you should at least know what it is.

122: Patrilineal s/b matrilineal there? I think?

Sifu is a title, peep. Canonically, my Pseudonymous Psurname would be "Fish".

Mara's mom gave her girls her last name and her boys their dads' last names. I've seen this mentioned as one option on feminist blogs and so forth

Odd, I would have thought the opposite approach, giving boy-children the mother's name and girl-children the father's, so that no matter what the children do upon marrying, they're being a bit subversive, would be more likely to be feminist-blog-approved.

SO JEALOUS of reason 2 in 113.

I try to stay appreciative of them. Especially my mother-in-law, who is flying in over Spring Break to help out with the HPs, because their daycare closes over Spring Break. Good lord I love her.

One really regret the Flip-parents not having named one "St. John," which was apparently in the running. Damn hippies.

Man, resentment over names just mystifies me.* However, mine, my ex's, and my current's are all sufficiently generic (Barnes, Andrews, Moore) that nobody feels much attached or could remotely claim endangered status. Shrugs all the way around.

*OTOH, all three of my kids have my surname, so yay patriarchy.

128: Mine are pretty great along those lines, too. They're very, non-urban, middle-American, and I'm about as weird to them as if Buck had gone out and brought home an okapi. But they're very pleasant about it, and actually seem to like me.

"Regrets."

Okapi, don't be silly. Kakapo.

Not a palindrome, however tempting it might look.

You don't have to take your husband's name, but I think you should at least know what it is.

Shortly after we got married, we bought a house, and when I was putting our names on some document, I had to call my wife to ask her what her last name was. I couldn't remember what she had ultimately decided to do.

For a while, Jammies could not remember how to spell Hawaii's name for the life of him. Nor what Pokey's birthday is.

I do hate that about the wife-doesn't-change-her-name-kids-go-with-the-husband pattern, for people I know through their kids. I know the kid's full name, and the father's, but if I need the mother's (which I usually don't, which means that when I do it's unexpected), I have to actively find it out.

125: nope, patrilineal. Prior to the Teapotsplosion, Papa Mix declared that an 350-year chain of Bathyscaphe men was a mere curiosity, because family trees are only interesting when they show the women too. (And what everyone died of! Heritable diseases are his hobby horse.)

I'm sure that he has a brain cell somewhere telling him that this is logically consistent with his current stance.

I know brothers named Cop/per and Sid, named after, respectively, Coper/ni/cus and Sid/dhar/tha.

St. John, have fin Gin, ooo I am an engine
Okapi, my nappy, come on baby slappy
Gabardo, el Scombo baby why don't we go
Down... to... Kakapo!!#!!

138: Your father sounds fascinating, albeit unreasonable.

Heritable diseases are his hobby horse

Maybe a quick wipedown with alcohol before you let your kid on it?

136: Is he just one of those people that can't spell and can't remember dates? I've come across both of those kinds of people, but I'm not sure if I know anyone that lacks both of those abilities.

I will never stop thinking "Enormous, mendacious, disembodied anus" when I'm reminded of that song.

Definitely he can't spell worth shit. Dates I think he's mostly okay on, but he's so incredibly organized that it's hard to know what he'd remember without all his planning.

141: fascinating, from an appropriate distance. Maddening close up.

What will these liberal professors get up to next?

I was actually a bit of a dick about names once at a conference, when a young married academic couple was talking about the opposite problem--how academics are or pretend to be totally mystified by women taking their husband's name, and so how they got all these questions (since they were in the same field) about, oh, are you siblings?, etc. As innocently as possible, I asked the husband, "So what did make you decide to take your wife's name, because I really respect that?"

I've been embarrassed about that ever since, because needling folks about their decision after it's been made is completely unhelpful. I do think, though, that more men should put pressure on their guy friends who're at the getting-married stage--it should be something men are forced to think about.

I figured out that people that are super-bad spellers don't even see spelling. I thnk it's the same as the way I am with folding towels.

||
Does anyone still use Corel? I have a couple of old SHW files I want to open. (Poor me, I still miss Wordperfect.)
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PC or Mac? You could try this viewer if the former.

137: I'm going with that option. I hadn't thought of it as being difficult, partially because the way our social circle works, almost everyone shiv knows here he knows through me, and because with all the different combinations academic types here use, it's basically standard to ask.

it should be something men are forced to think about.

How much thought does this really need? Doesn't "everyone just do what the fuck you feel like and who cares because your names are probably not that interesting anyways" pretty much suffice?

151: Yeah, when I say I hate it it's not disapproval -- it's a standard pattern and I see why it makes sense -- I just run into it with families where I know the kid well but I just have a nodding acquaintance with the parents. And then suddenly you're trying to track the mother down midday and you know her first name is Melissa and that's all you know. It's never a big problem, just an annoying glitch.

152: I don't particularly care, but "everyone does what they feel like" around here means "you're a weirdo for not taking your husband's last name, and my son's middle name is Gryzzly (the 'y' makes it extra unique!) but that's totally normal."

154: Heh, maybe go hang out farther west where all the Mexicans are.

154: Because, it's very important to be both totally normal and extra unique!

My father's advice on dealing with in-laws was basically to do what you wanted, because in the long run children always get the upper hand on their parents. (This came up when one of my friends wanted to marry his girlfriend, and his parents threatened to disown him. (In the end his parents had their way, since the girlfriend broke off the engagement. (Sigh.)))

When I was growing up there was periodic talk about adopting my paternal grandmother's maiden name instead of our family last name. My dad's dad ditched the family soon after the youngest son was born, giving the name mostly negative associations; the boys were raised by their mother and maternal grandfather, whom they loved and cherished. But my grandmother has fixed ideas about the institution of marriage, and so we generally felt that this change would most easily be made after her death. She will be 95 this year, and at some point I realized I feel my name is my name, I've carried it with me through the long process of identity formation, and changing it for sentimental reasons now would be silly. But I gave my daughter the last name I would have adopted (instead of my own last name) as a middle name, and then she has her father's lovely surname to end it. The effect is botanical and old-fashioned, but I like it.

My sister ended up dropping the last name we share and just going by [firstname] [mother's maiden name], which was her/our middle name originally, and then she gave [mother's maiden name] to her son as a last name. This turned out to be nice and elegant once her husband ditched them.

120: Sifu is his first name, and Tweety is his last name. You don't have to take your husband's name, but I think you should at least know what it is.

Sifu is his title.

"His title is Robert Paulson."

Sifu is his style.

Someone into heritable diseases ought to like the scheme by which everyone gets a matrilineal and a patrilineal name. Also handy for daycare pickups, etc. Eventually, sixteen quarterings for all!

Eventually, sixteen quarterings for all!

So … everyone has sixteen homes? Or everyone has four things?

162: As someone who was pwned way back at 126, you may not want to BSALB.

Also.

It's possible that I was BALB by assuming you were BALB. But you were still pwned.

Hight, yclept, né, dba, AKA, soi-disant, once and future.

I'll confess to also being a bit irked by the "kids take husband's name"--with an exception for one special case! Can you guess what it is?

...

Have you guessed yet?

... it's okay when the parents flip a coin (or use some other randomizer, whatever) to decide which name gets used!

162 is also just odd. The term is quarterings, and it isn't hard to look up.

What if it's a biased coin?

We don't count unconscious biases.

161: especially someone who is into heritable diseases and is from a country in which children are given both a matrilineal and a patrilineal name. But no!

trapnel, you'll be pleased to know we did consider a coin toss to decide between T.Z.M. Bathyscaphe and our chosen Mix name. But in the end we just went with the name we liked more.

The term is quarterings, and it isn't hard to look up.

I couldn't possibly have decided to post 162 regardless!

We went with the alliterative choice (C's surname) for Kid A as it sounded better, thinking we would alliterate with mine for Kid B as we had an idea of a name in mind. And then changed our minds re the first name, and then thought, fuck it, they're siblings, they can have the same surname.

Had a funny experience with a woman who I met through my mum and dad, and she needed to write me a cheque, and asked me what my surname was. Erm, same as those people that you've known for ten years!

GB and SM - triple argh - hope they get over themselves enough to at least bloody visit soon.

My cat has my last name, but really only uses it at the vet. Her middle name is David because the family tradition is that all pets have the middle name David. No-one knows why.

Mrs. K-sky and I don't entirely know what our names are. We planned at the wedding that I would take her middle name and she would take my last name, because she wasn't very attached to her last name (an Ellis Island substitution) and combining our two would be inelegant along the lines of Jewishstein-Jewishberg.

But then we never filled out any paperwork, she continued to use her original name professionally, she went with Jewishstein Jewishberg on Facebook, and I use her middle name for the nonce, but in no legal capacity.

The Forthcoming K-skini will get my last name and her own first and middle names, which pay loose tribute to some deceased relatives, as suggested by Jewishstein-Jewishberg tradition.

168: How many kids do you have to have to determine that?

170.1: Okay, just nuts or domineering. Commiseration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leone_Sextus_Tollemache

"an elder brother was named Lyulph Ydwallo Odin Nestor Egbert Lyonel Toedmag Hugh Erchenwyne Saxon Esa Cromwell Orma Nevill Dysart Plantagenet Tollemache-Tollemache[5]--his first 15 initials spell "LYONEL THE SECOND"."

Everyone is now pwned.

177. Well, I suppose that his father,being a clergyman, was able to baptise him personally. Because any responsible vicar who said, "Name this child", and got that lot back, would tell the godparents (WTF were they thinking?) to FOAD and call the kid Jim.

Huh, I thought I was being a good modern liberal by not expecting T. to take my name when we got married, but apparently that wasn't enough and I should have offered to take hers. More seriously, I'm not sticking with my name out of tradition (although I realize that's what makes it so easy to do so, and doing the default thing should require thought, and so on), but because I want to simplify my name. Before we get married I plan to legally change it to what I've informally called myself for years now. Changing from one hyphenation to another wouldn't help.

She mentioned us both hyphenating. I wasn't interested. She said it was just an idea and she didn't have her heart set on it and I'm taking her word for it and we haven't discussed it since then; she can hyphenate or take my name if she wants, although I certainly don't expect either, but I don't want to take hers.

While I was an exchange student I met several people who had names that were normal enough in their own cultures but became funny in a new one. Three examples:

The name "Holly" may be unremarkable in the Anglosphere, but to a French person it sounds just like the phrase "to bed."

I met a guy with the family name "Strokoff," but as a French teen of Russian heritage, he had no idea what it sounded like in English.

Met a fellow exchange student named Nick Dixon. He was an Australian, or maybe New Zealander, so he had no idea that it sounded like the name of an infamous American president.

Are we still on topic here? I want to make a PSA to all babysplosion participants about the Obamapump- unlike the Obamaphone, you really can get a breast pump for free for each baby you pop out- insurance is required to cover it at no charge. We had a pump that made it through 3.5 babies but died while still needed for the last one, we were about to blow a couple hundred on a new one, then I heard about the required coverage under ACA. Called insurance to confirm, called doctor to get prescription, took prescription to medical device store = free pump.

Is it a nice one? I've only ever used the Medela model that I have, but I'm wary of crappy pumps.

This followed me partially repairing the existing pump by getting a distributor cap O ring at Autozone and replacing the pump's drive belt. The existing band had worn away and this kind of fixed it but the size/tension wasn't exactly the same to the suction isn't the same as before. I had to determine whether the repair worked at all (while wife was at work) so tested it on myself.

The store encouraged her to get the more expensive model- they're all covered full cost up to some level of I think several hundred dollars- but to make it compatible with existing parts she got the same Medela one we already have (Purely Yours I think?)

Wait, that's Ameda, not Medela, because those don't sound at all the same. I think Medela is what they were pushing her to buy.

Woohoo! The streets will run with breastmilk!

so tested it on myself

And?

Poor seal because I didn't shave for the experiment; results inconclusive, but there was enough pain to say that the pump was at least pulling some air.

The name "Holly" may be unremarkable in the Anglosphere, but to a French person it sounds just like the phrase "to bed."

Huh, that's not the same (first) vowel at all for me.

We took advantage of the Obamapump ourselves, to get a second, somewhat different pump (since the provision for it only kicked in this year). (Medela Pump-In-Style vs. Freestyle - the Freestyle is newer and better designed in a lot of ways, but the actual pumping is less powerful, presumably so they could make it much smaller and run for a while on an internal battery).

I wish we'd known about it earlier because she was carrying her pump back and forth to work everyday, would have been easier to have two (and also not be in a panic when the first one broke.) At the hospital they asked if we had a pump, we said yes, so they didn't volunteer any more information about it. Although that was pre-Jan 1 so I guess it wasn't in effect yet.

I had heard that the Obamapump wasn't available until July. But maybe that's just because that's when our plan rolls over? I hope I can get insurance to cover it.

Do you have to start pumping before the fall semester?

Have to? No. Suspect that I will sometime in the first ten weeks? Yes. (I also don't have to go back until January because they have to give me leave, I'm due on the last day of class, and they can't make me take the leave in the summer as I'm not officially under contract, and also my dean is very pro-family/placating perceived flight risks.)

Autozone

Now I can't keep the phrase "Get in the zone. Breast milk zone." Fuck you brain!

Ooh, nice scheduling. Not that it's possible to plan that accurately, but it certainly worked out well.

I get a lot of compliments on the timing.

"Perceived flight risks" cracks me up.

188: "au lit." No concept of vocalizing the letter h*, and while English-speakers wouldn't normally pronounce the o in "Holly" like the French "au," apparently it's a conclusion French people jumped to when they saw it written. Compare to "Orly." So maybe it's not just the same, but close enough that confusion seemed reasonable.

Then again, I think she told me that in her high school French class she went by her middle name and she introduced herself by that in France from the start, so maybe this was just a problem in her American French class and not with actual French people, I don't know.

* At least, not when written with our alphabet. Put it in another alphabet, though, no problems. One of the most baffling things about my experience in French high school was hearing my classmates pronounce "the" as "zeh" and "thing" as "sing" in English class, and then a couple hours later hearing the same students have no problem with Arabic with its three different letters that could be transliterated as h and two that could be th.

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Way #439 in which the British are different from you and me (assuming you and I are from the U.S.). You can publish this in a mainstream newspaper:

Instil [in your young children] a long-term political goal, such as the overthrow of the royal family or private property

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while English-speakers wouldn't normally pronounce the o in "Holly" like the French "au,"

Right, that's what I was thinking of.

Beef Strokinoff is the name under which I make solo bear porn.

No no, the joke is, "What do you call 100 masturbating cows?"

Always already pwned.

We are still struggling with names for the impending nattarGcM offspring [t-7 days and counting]. Finding a name that works for the Czech speaking side of the family and the English is hard. Plus my/our surname is pretty Scottish sounding. Lots of Czech first names sound daft when combined with it.

Both of us like my Dad's name. Not as a tribute to him, but it just sounds nice with the surname. But neither of us would actually want him to think we'd named him after him. We may just have to go with Bohuslav nattarGcM.

Confuse everyone equally by calling him Shlomo, or Hieronymus, or Seewasugur.

Or Cetewayo!

I do like Hieronymous.

I can't tell if this is meant to be Bohuslav or Va/suhob.

Heh. Bohuslav.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Bohuslav#Czech

We have given serious though to:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Jakub#Czech

Call him Praaag (umlaut as desired) and leave it ambiguous as to whether its the city or the music style.

204: Congrats in advance. You should make sure the name includes an r with a hacek, because giving your child a name that most people won't be able to pronounce builds character.

Jakub sounds like it solves the sounding-weird problem, unless it's pronounced noticeably differently from Jacob. ekaJ nattarGcM is a perfectly ethnically coherent sounding name. No one's ever going to spell it right first time without being told, but that's not a big deal at all.

Alternately, call him Jan but pronounce it Ian.

Hieronymus nattarGcM sounds like an equally polymathic contemporary of Thomas Urquhart or Cromarty. Go for it!

204. You couldn't just call him Jan and pretend it's Ian when you go north?

Re 211

So far while he is still enwombed we are calling him Řehoř because the two R-haceks amuse.

Re: Jakub

We would probably go with standard English pronunciation (in English) and the Czech diminutives. If we do go with that at all.

"Mirek" would be euphonious.

Re 218

My wife's sister's husband's name. We def wouldn't use that.

Bummer. I'd stick with Řehoř, then.

I met a guy with the family name "Strokoff,"

Friend-of-a-friend's last name used to be Wankoff. No joke. Her family tried to make it better by putting the stress on the second syllable, but there's just no getting around that being a horrible name. She was very happy to change it upon marriage.

I quite like the mélange studen names (seeing the official roster gets me middle names, etc.). Still hoping for a Leigh St. John-Ng.

I have two friends who work at different unions but sometimes collaborate. The spelling of each of their last names would easily allow for different pronunciations, but they have stuck with their families' versions and thus there are times when Wiener (Wei/ner) and Boner (Boh/ner) are on conference calls together.

I've mentioned that Buck used to work for a three-employee company manned by Weiner, [Woody], and Cox? (His name's not Woody, but might as well be.)

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There's a Joss Whedon movie of Much Ado About Nothing? This sounds endlessly horrible to me. Winky-nudgey dork-ironic Shakespeare, gevalt.
|>

225: My brother! Let the hate flow through you....

Trailer

I work with an individual saddled with the unfortunate multicultural name of Sere/nity Wa/ng.

227: Marge. Get. My. Gun.

Winky-nudgey dork-ironic Shakespeare, gevalt.

Rollover text!

Serenity W/ang! Insanity pecker.

I knew a John Johnson. I guess his parents were given the choice between that and Harry.

225: I am really, really excited about the Whedon Much Ado. However, like my love of Neil Young, it is not something I feel up to defending against sophisticated critics.

Wait, Neil Young is now deprecated around here? What?

Much Ado... is winky-nudgy ironic already. It's not like they did A Winter's Tale. (That's waiting for Moffat and Eccleston.)

I (mostly) love Branagh's Much Ado. Is that deprecated?

rob, I'm willing to support you, though I think Whedon's could go either way. Some great casting for sure.

Heh, I once convinced my wife that the voice of Kermit the frog was done by Neil Young.

Neil Young is the Yucateco of rock, green, without subtlety, and bad on desserts.

From way back at 29: Happy Hussey would fit right in at the senior center down the street - for years its front window had an ad for its "'Happy Hooker's' Crochet Club", grocer's apostrophe and superfluous quotation marks included.

I (mostly) love Branagh's Much Ado. Is that deprecated?

I think it got overrated at the time on grounds of scenery, geographic and human. (Michael Keaton's Dogberry was rather twitchy, I recall.) For that summer, it was America's liberal-arts-educated-mom's Under the Tuscan Sun-equivalent.

I heard about the Whedon Much Ado About Nothing on Facebook, perhaps five minutes before Smearcase alluded to it here, from a friend whose taste is only sometimes reliable.

I have no set opinion about Joss Whedon, but armed with a fondness for all Much Ados - it was the first show I acted in, back when - I decided to be open to seeing and liking this one.

240: I seem to remember taking a similar "it's overrated" stand on Branagh's star-stuffed Hamlet, but I also seem to remember being a teenager and seeing it on a bus, so I don't know that I trust my critical faculties there.

I will defend disliking Neil Young.

He sucks.

I thought the Branagh Hamlet was genuinely kind of awful. I've mostly completed my metamorphosis from total Buffy-devotee and Whedon fangirl to post-Dollhouse Whedon hater, but I have to admit the trailer for Much Ado has me kind of excited.

242: I remember that movie being a sort of brassy, top-of-everyone's-range-all-the-time version, but not really disappointing or crappy.

I was expecting to enjoy it and didn't; I don't know that it was objectively crappy, but I like the play, was looking forward to it with that cast, and ended up not having any fun.

The Branagh Hamlet was genuinely kind of awful.

I'd like to see the Whedon one to see if they got the loose, quick, summer-rep-having-fun feeling into it.

I don't know if I count as a Whedon fangirl, but I did decide to pretend Dollhouse didn't exist, which keeps me warmer. Also, thought Natasha in Avengers was good, in the way that I particularly like Eowyn and Faramir: top-class humans outclassed by people with a power or a prophecy or something.

Still Řehoř, 4 months later!

Natasha in Avengers was good, in the way that I particularly like Eowyn and Faramir: top-class humans outclassed by people with a power or a prophecy or something.

This is great. Natasha was for me one of the problems of Avengers -- it bothered me that there was only one female hero of the gang and her power was . . . super sexiness? Anyway, I prefer your take.

I loved Natasha's first scene in Avengers, where you think she is the victim, but really she's totally in charge.

Anyway, I prefer your take.

I really, really liked The Avengers and thought it did a remarkable job of balancing character / plot / exposition without feeling too lumbering.

All in all, I thought Natasha was handled about as well as she could be, but I still found myself wondering, "why have her, specifically, at all." Given the decision to include her, I thought the movie did a good job of using her, but there are other characters (and other actresses) that I would have been more interested in seeing.

233 demonstrates rob's incredble out-of-touchness. Liking Neil Young has been cool for like 20 years now. Pitchfork's review of the rerelease of his first four albums is effusive.

Basically, her superpower is topping from the bottom.

Yeah, we discussed Neil Young here recently. I'm on team 'Neil Young is massively over-rated and those guitar solos are too long, and not very good'. But yeah, around the time he released Arc/Weld he became hip again.

It also became common to hear [deluded/wrong] people describing him as the only talented one in CSNY.

I don't think Team Neil Young: Amazing Technical Guitarist has too many members, seeing as his most famous guitar solo has one note. And that his best music (e.g. Tonight's the Night) literally dissolves.

But surely everyone outside of Berklee School of Music and/or Musician's Institute of Technology and/or the Official Joe Satriani/Dream Theater Fan Club Organization agrees that that can't be the right evaluative criteria.

My wife never openly expresses enthusiasm for any entertainment product, so I didn't appreciate the extent of her Whedon fandom until she dutifully watched all of Dollhouse. I couldn't bring myself to watch more than 5 minutes of it, though she talked into watching the first part of the two-part finale.

I liked the Natasha opening, but it struck me as pretty derivative of a scene near the end of the Charlie's Angels, which had better fight choreography.

I admit, looking at the list of Avengers there aren't that many female avengers to chose from. Some of the most interesting (Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel [Monica Rambeau]) have powers that would be difficult to show in a movie.

The Wasp might be the best choice, considering that she was both a founding member and was chair at one point, but it wouldn't make sense to include her without including Ant-Man. She-Hulk would have a similar problem in that having Hulk and She-Hulk in the same movie could be a bit much.

I think Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch would be great characters, but I can see how The Black Widow makes sense.

But surely everyone outside of Berklee School of Music and/or Musician's Institute of Technology and/or the Official Joe Satriani/Dream Theater Fan Club Organization agrees that that can't be the right evaluative criteria.

Oh, fer sure. I'm critiquing him based on his suckiness.

OK, his music doesn't literally dissolve.

259. Right, but if you decide to make a movie about/in a story/genre that is misogynist, the preexisting problems of the story/genre don't exculpate you from the charge that your own movie is problematic.

re: 257

re: Young's solos: I mean 'not very good' as in 'not very interesting'. If you are going to bang on for bloody ages, it should be interesting or expressive. I don't tend to find Young's much of either. I'm not even a big Young hater. I quite like the odd song, the odd album even, but sometimes he's interminable.

I don't care about technical ability, or at least I don't care about it when the musician in question isn't explicitly making a claim for it. Lots of my favourite musicians have rudimentary technique at best, and lots of the best guitar solos are shambolic.

Ah. I agree that some of the Crazy Horse instrumentals kind of go on to nowhere. But part of the appeal of the guy (for me anyway) is that he seems as if both his voice and the music around him is about to collapse at any moment.

I would like Neil Young a lot if the lyrics weren't so horribly cliched. This doesn't seem to be a common opinion, and I usually ignore lyrics anyway, but there it is.

re: 264

It has more of the flavour of the pub bore, to me. Someone going on and on boring everyone. I remember being deeply disappointed by Weld when it came out for that reason.

re: 264

That said, I know the sort of thing you mean. I like other musicians who have that teetering on the edge of disintegration thing going on.

267: I feel like that's the quality I like in Matthew sweet. Esp. "Sick of myself."

Holly - what a silly name.

Allow me to be the first to say that Neil Young sucks.

I usually think of the Scarlet Witch as the canonical female Avenger, but that might just be a function of the age at which I was mostly reading comics.

She-Hulk could also work.

I think of Neil Young as the guy who did the sound track for Dead Man, a movie that I continue to like but maybe not as much as I did when I was more of an academic.

And further to and maybe because of that, the idea of listening to Neil Young do regular music seems to me like listening to the zither guy from The Third Man do regular music.

(I still love The Third Man and it's sound track, btw.)

its

268 is surprising. I think of Matthew Sweet's music as very tightly structured power-pop. It's not Michael Penn-level of composed, but it feels very deliberately fabricated.

275 gets it right. His songs are almost too planned out sometimes. Not as much as XTC though.

I have a soft spot for songs that could not possibly be covered effectively because what makes them good is the way things just sort of fall together, rather than the writing per se. The Fall is the all-time leader in this sort of song.

Scarlet Witch would work well to build a movie around, but only if they could get David Lynch to direct.

Neil Young is the only artist of his era that I can think of who is still doing interesting things.

Greil Marcus

Young moves off on long, entrancing voyages, accompanied by slashes of the second guitar, a loose, winding beat, the bass and drums pounding with the steady, gritty energy of a man pulling a bucket out of a well hand over hand. Anyone who dug Young's guitar on 'Mr. Soul' or 'Out of My Mind' will simply dive into this song. Like Robbie Robertson, Young used to be quite sparing in what he'd give to the listener - but here he gives it all. On and on he goes, winding his way through passages and alleyways, his guitar really talking in a way that the guitars of only the very best bluesmen (B.B. King and Robert Johnson) talk, in a way that only the guitar of Keith Richard of the Stones can talk. I say that the guitar talks because when this miracle happens there is simply no alienation between the artist and his instrument. Try to draw the line, and it can't be done. The man seems to be speaking with his fingers, with the strings, like a deaf and dumb boy communicating with signals.

One note played for hours can be like a reverse Shishi-odoshi, which I can understand isn't very "interesting or expressive" for some kinds of people.

Same with Young's lyrics. FFS, he isn't trying to be Keats. The reduction and cliches are the fucking point.

Thank you, bob. Well said.

280 is on point.

Apparently I'm 'some kind of people'. Which I guess I am. I'm the kind of person who find long hippy guitar solos boring.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with liking long hippy guitar solos, if that's what floats your boat.

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Oh hey, remember this?

One year later, analogous project, different individual contributor, crucial to the endeavor, goes crazy and has three screaming, foot-stamping, poison-pen email-sending tantrums in two weeks, reducing other people to tears and behaving in the most abusive way anyone has ever encountered. This necessitates their firing and a last-minute rush to find a ringer. Which we did, but it was a huge monkey-wrench in the gears.

I won't even detail the perfidy of the other person who was responsible for a lot of the goading and enabling that led to the tantrums.

||>

I won't even detail the perfidy of the other person who was responsible for a lot of the goading and enabling that led to the tantrums.

Why not?

He's too modest to talk about himself?

Oh, alright, twist my arm:

This other fellow (TOF), who has a long history of working with our organization, and some strong personal ties to the boss, decided that he would forward some materials to the freak out guy (FOG), and add his gloss in such a way as to ensure that FOG took the materials as a personal affront. TOF was told that this had been a stupid move, and had, in fact, almost led to FOG being taken off the project. Then, this week, TOF kept goading FOG until he freaked out again, then took his side in the ensuing brouhaha, even going so far as to send the boss an email which could be read as threatening (not with physical violence). And, get this, TOF says he won't work unless FOG is kept on the project, but he still wants to be paid in full (even though no contract has been signed yet). Then FOG sent another poison-pen email last night which apparently eclipsed his previous one in both viciousness and paranoia. By some people's estimation, this represents total career suicide on FOG's part, as there is no one else in the industry who wants to work with him, as he has pulled similar shit with just about everyone he's ever worked with. And it's a very small industry, where gossip can make its way to every significant international node very rapidly.

All of these people are well into middle-age, and should really know better.

287. Not for nothing is this thread headed "More baby stuff".

288 is great

Topping from the bottom seems like a necessary skill when dealing with superheroes and supervillains. See also Agent Paulson?

The campy opening with Natasha was ...campy, but I liked it as a setup for her doing pretty much the same thing to Loki.

if you decide to make a movie about/in a story/genre that is misogynist, the preexisting problems of the story/genre don't exculpate you from the charge that your own movie is problematic. Too true! But also true that the audience is part of the problem, so if I pay attention to these genres at all I can't blame their makers for not being unstained. I think my moral standard is `as much better as you can get from where we are', by which Avengers was a wash, the DC reboot unforgivable, and... I'm trying to come up with a feminist triumph in pulp film and failing, even though I liked Brave. Oh! I like the first Mu Lan movie; she's also an *engineer* heroine. (But Magic Negro sidekick. Argh.) The sequel is unmitigatedly awful, though.

Tremors is also, surprisingly, not awful.

Tremors is GREAT! On all levels.

my moral standard is `as much better as you can get from where we are'

I've been reading a lot of new YA high fantasy lately, and have been very impressed -- they're super fun, with great stories and characters from a feminist perspective, in a genre that has always seemed (to me anyway) to be icky in that regard.

Tremors is great.

Also this bit of comment I like: ...in the way that I particularly like Eowyn and Faramir: top-class humans outclassed by people with a power or a prophecy or something.

I loved Tremors a lot. "CAN YOU FLY?!"

278: Neil Young is the only artist of his era that I can think of who is still doing interesting things.

Jeff Beck. Though I see that the last three of his albums I have (Who Else; You Had it Coming; Jeff) are longer ago than I thought -- 1999, 2001, and 2003 respectively. I haven't heard the latest, from 2010.

Try "Seasons" off Jeff.

Or "So What" from same. (That one's not for everyone.)

291.3: Specifically, jms?

I think I rate Brave higher, actually, having watched it with my mom as a three-hankie. It isn't a triumph as a pulp film, but making a film that's about something else in the framework of YA spunky teen individuation is interesting.

The voiceovers give me the goddamn pip, though. I even like Enya and Loreena McKennit but that was too damn much portenteous Celtic twilight boo-rah.

President Taft: What does TOF get out of the goading and the breakdowns? Mere amusement, or a firmer position?