Re: I Am A Foreigner

1

Well, my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather Michael was the first Englishman in the Western hemisphere to be convicted of child abuse, and my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great aunt Elizabeth was the first woman born in America to be hanged for lewdness.

Never will I let the commoners forget that I am of an ancient lineage.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:05 PM
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I'm not even quite getting the freaky. Cleric can't be all that uncommon a profession; what's weird about being descended from one?


Posted by: LizardBreath | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:06 PM
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That's not weird, it's having the details confirmed that's a little strange and like I said, the arbitrariness of the name is also a bit freaky. I'm attached to it, it seems important that it's descended from a line, and its origin seems so fragile (I mean, they're all like that, but still).


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:07 PM
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When was this?


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:12 PM
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Kotsko believes that his family name on the other side was Kosciusko.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:13 PM
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When was this?

I'm not clear on that. Need to ask.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:14 PM
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Yeah, last name decisions like that are a little freaky. My own last name is quite clearly an enwhitening of a somewhat common Ashkenazi Jewish last name. It's enwhitened enough that it doesn't sound Jewish to non-Jews, but it sounds extremely Jewish to Jews and Germans. And it's totally made up, and we don't have the evidence for who or when all this de-Jewifying happened. When I ask about our family history, I'm told we're, like, Western European.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:15 PM
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Relative of the Holy Baal Shem checking in over here, ok thanks. You can form a line to the left for obeisances.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:16 PM
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I wish my parents would tell me my last name.


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:18 PM
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Some people didn't quite understand the processing of `enwhitening', either. I know someone whose great-grandfather, upon arriving in America, changed the family name by removing most of the vowels. He thought it was too long for Americans, and you didn't really need the vowels anyway.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:18 PM
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10: It doesn't really make much of a dent in "Przycewicz" to remove the vowels anyway. Better to remove the consonants.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:19 PM
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Hey, Yei!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:21 PM
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A cousin of mine has been doing some genealogical research, and has been calling everyone up with the scandalous revelation that some woman several generations back was probably maybe Scottish. That is, not German. I explained that the rest of the ancestors were actually Frisian, anyway.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:21 PM
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I'm surprised no one has yet commented on the fact that this means ogged is an Arab.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:22 PM
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11: It didn't actually make much difference in his name either, but I won't reproduce here because it is, as far as he can tell, unique. They did leave one vowel in.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:24 PM
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10: A Finn?


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:24 PM
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The names that are really tough to pronounce come from when they remove the vowels but leave the umlauts.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:25 PM
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16: Slovenian.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:25 PM
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14 -- Maybe an 8th Arab. Or a 16th. Details are vague. Is there a one drop rule on that?

So, O, are you a descendant of the Prophet?


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:28 PM
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17: Is that a joke, or does that really happen?


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:29 PM
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20: isn't that very roughly what happens in persian?


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:30 PM
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I've heard that the great Iranian last-naming came under the first Shah Pahlavi, like in the 20s or 30s. A very funny Iranian guy told me this, and also that his last name meant "super-awesome guy with much awesomeness"----which is also roughly the translation of my honey's completely different last name.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:30 PM
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the arbitrariness of the name

At least it wasn't state-imposed, or lazy-bureaucrat-imposed. </immigrant-misery-poker>


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:31 PM
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My dude came over before 1900. I really should find out exactly when.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:32 PM
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which is also roughly the translation of my honey's completely different last name

All immigrants were rich and noble in the country of their birth, except for the ones who ate nothing but dirt.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:33 PM
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23: You mean like the well-known Jew, Sean Ferguson?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:34 PM
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26: I'm pretty sure I've told that joke here. I know I told it in my German class. The teacher, at least, was amused.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:35 PM
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That's odd, I'd heard it as Ike Ferguson.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:37 PM
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I'm pretty sure I've told that joke here.

If you haven't, I have, I'm sure.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:37 PM
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28: Goyim always mess up the jokes when they tell them.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:38 PM
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20: That's where Spinal Tap gets it. (Joke being funnier if I could get the umlaut over the "n" and option+u isn't doing it. Grr.)


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:38 PM
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Goyim always mess up the jokes when they tell them

Not just, or even most spectacularly, goyim.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:40 PM
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addendum to the above-mentioned name, and uniqueness. He may set some sort of record, because while there are 40+ pages of google hits on his name, every reference is to him.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:41 PM
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32: Even the Chosen People have the cousins everyone's a little embarrassed about.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:44 PM
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My last name is almost, but not quite, as boring as "Smith" or "Jones." One finds it attached to all sorts of ethnicities, too.


Posted by: Flippanter | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:44 PM
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You know, I don't think any of my immigrant ancestors (that I know of) had their names changed by any means when they came over. They almost all had surnames that were pretty common in the areas they came from, and they kept them pretty much intact over here.

Of course, this is just the ones we know about, which basically means my mom's family, all of whom immigrated around 1905. My dad's family has been over here so long that we don't know when any of them first came over, with the exception of the ancestor from whom the last name comes, and that's only because it's an unusual name and he's the only one who ever immigrated. Everyone in this country with our name is descended from him, but we, at least, have no idea exactly how.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:48 PM
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My last name is a first name. My middle name is a language. Neither is particularly unique, although in context they're sort of odd.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:50 PM
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My first and last names are adjectives. In a language that is not English.

(Which puts me in mind of the terrible movie Johnny Dangerously where the hero is asked, "Do you know your last name is an adverb?")


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:52 PM
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My last name is a first name. My middle name is a language. Neither is particularly unique, although in context they're sort of odd.

Ooh, this could be fun:

Spencer Icelandic Tweety?
Jones Bantu Tweety?
Boghossian Low Frissian Tweety?


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:52 PM
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Oh, wait last name is a firstname.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:53 PM
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My last name is a first name, rob. It's true, my first name is a last name, but that's a borderline case.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:54 PM
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Everyone in this country with our name is descended from him, but we, at least, have no idea exactly how.

I'm going to guess that sexual intercourse was involved.


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:54 PM
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James Turkey Harold.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:55 PM
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Tweety Magyar Percival?


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:55 PM
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Who speaks Turkey, ogged? Besides Madden.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:56 PM
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Rob's first name is a middle name! It's true!


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:56 PM
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Spencer Mandarin Joseph.


Posted by: rob helpy-chalk | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:56 PM
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Oh, a language, not a country. Ok, I give up, what is it?


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:58 PM
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You're not very good at this game, ogged.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:58 PM
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Milton French Stewart?


Posted by: Not Sifu | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:59 PM
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My last name refers to a trade. My Dad's family is Alsatian, so there's a mix of French and German, but we've got the French last name. My Mom's family is almost entirely English, and my first and middle names are biblical and Englishy. My sister's name works better with a French last name.

My Mom's maiden name is an adjective which is easy for English-speakers to spell. I always have to spell mine out.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 4:59 PM
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Cogg-Willoughby !Xhóõ Billy, go back to Slovenia.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:02 PM
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Sorry, Slovakia.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:03 PM
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48 -- Fars.


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:03 PM
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Okay, okay. It's Hogg Pig Latin Dick.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:03 PM
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My porn star name is Pussywillow Seaman.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:04 PM
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So how totally suspicious is it that ogged is a secret arab? No wonder he likes Obama.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:04 PM
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Sifu is Stewart Scot, Earl of Douglas.


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:05 PM
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My first name is Scandinavian, my middle name is most common among the Scottish, and my surname is one of those made-up things like AWB describes. Nobody (on the Internets or beknownst to me) has my surname who isn't closely related to me.


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:05 PM
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My first and last names are adjectives. In a language that is not English.

Nice to meet you, Jolie Laide.

I used to know a girl whose full name consisted of four last names. Surprisingly her parents were hippies and not yuppies.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:05 PM
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My muslim brother!


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:05 PM
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My porn star name is Pussywillow Seaman.

Awesome.

These things get better if you allow for more than one pet and more than one street as options.

One friend announced that hers was "Frisky Forward". Her story checked out.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:06 PM
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I always have to spell mine out.

So do I. Really.


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:07 PM
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59: Olaf Haggis Beerknuk it is, then.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:08 PM
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62: yeah I have to say I've never been that excited about George Pleasant as a porn name.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:09 PM
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My first name is Scandinavian, my middle name is most common among the Scottish, and my surname is one of those made-up things like AWB describes.

Mjollnir Cairns Smallstone?


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:10 PM
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Okay, Stuart English Stuart.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:11 PM
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Okay, Stuart English Stuart.

Unlikely. Stuart Scots Stuart, maybe.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:12 PM
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Wotan Freeballin Laserface?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:13 PM
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Tweety Nigerien Bambi?


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:13 PM
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Fjord Firth Fnord?


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:13 PM
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Unlikely. Stuart Scots Stuart, maybe.

Well, he did say the effect of them all together was odd!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:14 PM
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Wotan Freeballin Laserface?

I laughed.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:14 PM
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Having lived two places as a kid, I have a waspy porn name, and a more ethnic one. I suppose it depends on the picture whether they want to use Piper Genoa or Piper Curzon.

O hasn't mentioned whether he's a descendant of the prophet, and I'm not sure what the status of the Lur thing is at this point. Must I read the archives?


Posted by: Nápi | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:15 PM
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I figured it out, Sify.

Ono Ainu Juno.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:16 PM
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O hasn't mentioned whether he's a descendant of the prophet

Not that I know of. Seems like the kind of thing I would have heard about earlier.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:18 PM
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75: right back atcha, in the style of Pacino in Scarface.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:20 PM
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I have a friend whose ancestors immigrated to our shores and wanted to trade their unwieldy Polish-Jewish name for something more American. Great-Grandpa thought of the only person he knew in America and chose the name "Rosenberg."


Posted by: Wrongshore | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:21 PM
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My last name is a first name and my first name is a last name. To the degree that I get misfiled more than 50% of the time.

On the other hand, my middle name isn't a language. It's sort of made up.


Posted by: soup biscuit | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:23 PM
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17: Is that a joke, or does that really happen?

Umlaut is a sound change on a vowel, so it couldn't really happen.

My maternal grandfather's family name went from Eichengrün to Gruen on immigration. His first name was anglicized as well.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:23 PM
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I'm not sure what the status of the Lur thing is at this point.

Presumably the fact that this Najafi cleric thing is a surprise implies that all the rest of his ancestors were Lur.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:23 PM
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I'm going to guess that sexual intercourse was involved.

You'd think so, but somehow we have no proof.


Posted by: teofilo | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:24 PM
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(You could have those two little dots above a consonant, of course, but then they couldn't be an umlaut.)


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:26 PM
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79: Nixon Klingon Richard, I presume.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:26 PM
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83: I don't know that we're talking about linguistically sophisticated people making these decisions.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:27 PM
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Presumably the fact that this Najafi cleric thing is a surprise implies that all the rest of his ancestors were Lur.

Right, the cleric came over a while ago, and my mom's family has been in Khorramabad for as long as anyone can remember. Of course, my maternal grandmother also spoke Laki, but that doesn't take her out of Khorramabad.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:28 PM
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My last name is a first name and my first name is a last name. To the degree that I get misfiled more than 50% of the time.

That's the topic of a young-adult novel that I really liked as a kid.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:30 PM
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My last name is a very common noun, but people seem to think that that would be too simple and often want to know how to spell it. I always say "as in your mouth".


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:35 PM
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Johnson Ik Jennifer?


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:35 PM
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Asilon Tooth! Asilon Greatbigcock!


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:35 PM
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88: your last name is Cock?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:36 PM
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My new last name is Pwned.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:36 PM
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Uvula? That seems like a first name. A girl's name, like "Ebola". Ebola and Uvula could be twins.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:37 PM
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88: your name is Babs Uvula?

Also, I just discovered that at least one member of G-Unit is half Iranian. A relative of Ogged?


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:37 PM
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My last name is a first name and my first name is a last name. To the degree that I get misfiled more than 50% of the time.

That happens to my friend's daughter. Her last name is a boy's first name, just to further confuse people.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:38 PM
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I always get people asking me for my last name and then, when I tell them, they say "that's your last name?" like I might have gotten mixed up. Yes, I do remember my own name, thanks.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:39 PM
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I got ripped off by that porn name thing, because I lived on a numbered street. How uncommon can this be?


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:40 PM
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97: sadly, nobody in the entire state of Iowa has a good porn name.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:41 PM
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there's a writer out there named Osha, leading me & my husband to joke that we were going to name all our daughter after federal agencies & regulatory laws. Osha, Epa, Cercla, & Foia.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:41 PM
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there's a writer out there named Osha, leading me & my husband to joke that we were going to name all our daughter after federal agencies & regulatory laws. Osha, Epa, Cercla, & Foia.

Assedic is a good French name for a boy.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:42 PM
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we were going to name all our daughter after federal agencies

Fannie Mae!


Posted by: slolernr | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:43 PM
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94 - where did the Babs come from, Ned? (I have a friend who is always referred to as The Babs.)

I do know a Cock actually. I went to collect him from his house late one night, and he didn't answer the door. I thought he might be in the pub next door, so I popped in, and was looking round. A well-meaning bloke asked if I was looking for someone, to which I replied, "Yes, M/ke C/ck" and then he pissed himself laughing at me.


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:43 PM
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98: Or Harlem.


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:44 PM
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"This is our boy, Batf."


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:44 PM
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102: See here. (Also a Green Day song.)


Posted by: Josh | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:45 PM
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My last name is a verb, my first name a noun, and my middle name an adjective.

And they're all the same word.


Posted by: feldspar | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:46 PM
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And you rose to the rank of Major by an administrative error?


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:47 PM
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104 would be especially good if you were from the Canadian Rockies and you could come up with a way to teach him to teleport, so that eventually Batf from Banff could go "BAMF!"


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:47 PM
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Major Major Major May, Jr.


Posted by: feldspar | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:51 PM
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I always get a kick out of the fact that I had a great-grandfather on the paternal side named Calix. None of the names in my family, as far as I know, have been changed or adulterated, with the exception of my father's dropping the capitalization of the third letter of our last name--a practice his sons have followed, though not always recognized by others writing it out.

I also share a name with a deceased Canadian pro wrestler of some repute within his circles. I particularly enjoy thinking of this fact when I imagine others trying to do internet searches on my name. And my porn name is Boots Spaziano.


Posted by: JL | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:52 PM
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I did once work with someone of Slavic ancestry whose family name was in fact an odd variant of the name of the boat on which his grandfather had arrived. (Too unique to mention, I just googled him and found out what he is up to.) I had heard those stories, but assumed that they were apocryphal.


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:52 PM
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Asilon Tooth! Asilon Greatbigcock!

There are people named Tooth. CMT disease is named for one.

As for Greatbigcock, it may not be anyone's name, but there are people who are synonymous with it. Modesty forbids me from identifying any such person, though.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:52 PM
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110: Calix is a nice name (assuming it comes from kalyx). It means flower bud.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:56 PM
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I got ripped off by that porn name thing, because I lived on a numbered street. How uncommon can this be?

Are you telling me that Fluffy Third is NOT a porn name?


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:57 PM
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America's most famous Callix


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 5:58 PM
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113: That's the meaning I've always understood it to have. Hard to imagine the man whom, in this case, it applied to being much suited to it.


Posted by: JL | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:00 PM
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In botany it means the outer part of the flower. The sepals form the calyx.

Usually not the nicest part of the flower. That would be the corolla. The petals form the corolla.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:01 PM
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My ancestor of the same surname who came to North America from Europe was found by us in a census book. His name, nationality, and religion were all wrong. We figured the census-takers had gotten it wrong, but it would be nice if my grandfather wasn't so silent about what his father's life was like.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:07 PM
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108: The first use of "BAMF*" I ever saw was in a Pogo cartoon. Walt Kelly then tied it into a joke about Lake Banff. So great comedic minds etc. ...

*It was the sound of a football exploding. Howland Owl had mistaken it for a pumpkin and had begun to carve it thereby releasing Pogo's bee colony that he had stored inside and which Albert ultimately inhaled... (somehow it all works in the comic strip).


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:07 PM
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My last name is....

Oh.

It's a shame, because I never had a childhood pet, but I lived on Hollywood Ave. So much wasted potential.


Posted by: JRoth | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:13 PM
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Nice to meet you, Jolie Laide.

WRONG! Bella Bellissima, thank you.


Posted by: oudemia | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:13 PM
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My first name is the Anglicisation of a Hebrew adaptation of the original Egyptian; my middle name is Norwegian and my last name is English. Oddly enough, the latter is the one that people most commonly stumble over. [Or perhaps, not so oddly, in LA.]


Posted by: DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:20 PM
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Oh, and my porn writer surname was a variant of my first husband's. Even tho' he didn't know about it, it amused me immensely.


Posted by: DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:23 PM
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His name, nationality, and religion were all wrong. We figured the census-takers had gotten it wrong, but it would be nice if my grandfather wasn't so silent about what his father's life was like.

It seems unlikely that the census taker got it all wrong. Have you checked other census years? other records?


Posted by: Mary Catherine | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:26 PM
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97: Pretty common.


Posted by: Fred 20th | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:34 PM
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Per conversation with my mom, I'd like to revise and extend my remarks. The name was chosen only recently, by my great-grandfather; before that my people roamed in single-named splendor. The cleric came over from Najaf around 250 years ago.


Posted by: ogged | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:35 PM
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Who speaks Turkey, ogged?

I don't know who speaks turkey.


Posted by: TJ | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:37 PM
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There's a whole train of thought here, but take it as read.

There was a very large family named Jones in the town where I grew up. All their first names started with "J" so there was a lot of alliteration going on and they were really, um, inbred, so no one's last name needed changing when they paired off. They all lived in one rambling, ramshackle old farmhouse and one day they were all simply gone. That must have been sixteen or seventeen years ago and to this day I know no one who knows where they went.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:37 PM
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Someone with a poor grasp of idiom, I suppose. Like crypto-Arab Persians.


Posted by: TJ | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:38 PM
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Guyana, maybe?


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:38 PM
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My last name is a verb, my first name a noun, and my middle name an adjective.

And they're all the same word.

Buffalo buffalo buffalo.


Posted by: TJ | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:46 PM
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127 makes me think "Talk English, Motherfucker!" would make a fine t-shirt.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:48 PM
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I don't know the name of the first street I lived on and I've never had a pet of my own, but if you count the pets we had when I grew up, my first name as a porn star would be either Odette or Odile, presumably depending on the depravity of the role. (Two cats, one light, one dark.)


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 6:53 PM
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My porn name is Goldie Gallatin, which I feel great about, should I ever need to use it. Much better than I do about my actual name, the sur part of which subjected me a lot of teasing in jr high. Names are so cathected.


Posted by: Sybil Vane | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:10 PM
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I am descended from this guy. According to my grandmother, he was an abandoned child, so named because his adoptive family found him between a blacksmith and a mill.


Posted by: Pantene | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:11 PM
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Oh, the porn name is the *first* street you lived on, like as an infant? I don't know it.


Posted by: parsimon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:11 PM
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Those are lovely names, Ben. Too lovely for porn, bien sur.

I only named one goldfish, and for some reason it was called Valerie. I lived on Vine St. Thus, Valerie Vine. Alliterative, but not very salacious. Not bad though.


Posted by: Belle Lettre | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:13 PM
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too personal info may be, well
my mom's side grandma's all four brothers were monks, then revolution happened, some of them were executed, some of them became laymen
her grandma were as i mentioned before Borjigin
my dad's side ancestors lived near the lake Baikal, in Mongolian it's Baigal which means Nature, khori buriad they came to Mongolia in 1916 but still were repressed in 1937 as people who avoided the October revolution, that's why two of his uncles were in Gulag
at least 5 generation up there was someone named Ondrii in his genealogy, may be he was Russian may be not and my dad's family name, tribal name to be exact, translates wise


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:13 PM
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"This place is sacred to the Buryats; they are of Mongolian type."


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:16 PM
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Thanks to the thread I now have this earworm running through my head:

My bologna has a first name, it's O-S-C-A-R. My bologna has a second name, it's M-E-Y-E-R    et fucking cetera.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:18 PM
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I don't know who speaks turkey.

I do! Seriously! There's this big-ass turkey at the little zoo part of the Museum of Life and Science here in Durham. He's been there for years. When I go to his pen, I make a turkey noise, which involves shaking my head back and forth really fast with my cheeks all loose and flappy. It's a very good turkey noise, if I do say so myself. Ask me at the next UnfoggeDCon. Anyhow, the turkey always trots right over and gobbles back at me for as long as I'll gobble at him.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:21 PM
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And my porn name would be Vernon Midnight.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:22 PM
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As a kid I gave my pets exciting names like "Bill", "Joe", and "Sam". I bet if I told you my real name and my porn name you couldn't guess which was which.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:23 PM
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And you wonder why you have a wattle, Vernon.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:23 PM
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What kind of animal did you have named Vernon?


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:24 PM
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143: Sam! No, Bill! No, Joe!


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:24 PM
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145: Some sort of vermin, of course.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:28 PM
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+s
what is porn name you are talking about, a nickname?
set off - what does it mean?


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:30 PM
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Gypsy Highway 52.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:31 PM
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My porn name, using this formula: Tramp Turnpike. Aw yeah.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:33 PM
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Your address was the turnpike?

Not possible in my state. Even less possible than your address being an interstate.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:36 PM
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I love names. I remember getting grouchy at my childhood babysitter when she told me I would drop one of my names as an adult because it was "too long." Um, no.

It's surprising to me how many modern-day immigrants have their names changed. Often it's not voluntary. Really disrespectful, too.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:36 PM
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And I had always heard of that game as the soap opera star name. Hmmm.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:37 PM
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Do I have it backwards? Vernon is the road, Midnight was a black cat.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:38 PM
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153: it depends on what kind of names your pets had.

My name is definitely in the soap opera actor category.

(Bill Carverton)


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:38 PM
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That is backwards, but in your case clearly superior. Maybe doing it that way around yields one's DJ name.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:40 PM
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148: take the name of your first pet as your first name, and the name of the first street you lived on as your surname: that is your porn name.

What's yours, read?


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:45 PM
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I think the concept works better as "stripper name" than "porn name" anyway. Stripper names tend to be more playful instead of just sexual. See 62.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:47 PM
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Peppi, street name is very long
Enkhtaivnu Orgon Choloo


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:47 PM
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159: Hott.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:48 PM
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I did once work with someone of Slavic ancestry whose family name was in fact an odd variant of the name of the boat on which his grandfather had arrived.

My last name has a somewhat similar history.


Posted by: Not Prince Hamlet | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:49 PM
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Definitely fetish porn, that one.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:50 PM
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the, it seems i'll never master indefinite, definite articles, Peppi is our dog's name
i looked up set off - it means to plan something
still can't get the meaning of the sentence in the book


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:54 PM
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Peppi Enkhtaivnu Orgon Choloo would be a good name for a commenter seeking a new pseudonym.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:55 PM
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Set off can mean to embark on a journey -- we set off on our trip. Or it can mean to trigger something -- he set off the bomb.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:55 PM
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My wife comes in with a respectable Bridget Heather Hill while I don't hold up my end with Coco Greenwood. (Maybe it works as a back-to-nature lesbian act ... works for me.)


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:56 PM
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ah, i got it, trigger then, thanks
if to translate it's Peace avenue, so may be it'd better sound Peppi Peace


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 7:58 PM
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Your address was the turnpike?

It was, in all seriousness, Turnpike Road.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:02 PM
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Well I'll be damned.

My favorite street name was always Pond Hill Mountain Road.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:03 PM
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168: Santa Barbara, by any chance? I guess there are a lot of Turnpike Roads around the U.S.


Posted by: essear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:06 PM
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No, a tiny town in the mountains of Western North Carolina. I did, however, watch Santa Barbara for a while in jr. high.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:08 PM
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it'd better sound Peppi Peace

The porn spelling would probably be Peppi Piece.

My favorite street name was always Pond Hill Mountain Road.

I've always like WA WA Avenue.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:09 PM
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i won't accept that spelling, urban dictionary gives very weird definitions of it, so i'll go native may be


Posted by: read | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:19 PM
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BR just asked me to put in a request for a spring or summer Unfogged party.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:20 PM
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It's like you don't even want to be a porn star, read.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:20 PM
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174: I'd drive up if you guys hosted it.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:21 PM
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Richmond is an easy drive from DC or from some DC airports (DCA & IAD).


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:23 PM
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Sweet. Apo is in! BR, Apo, and me! Two gingers - I'm bound to score!


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:24 PM
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I'll totally host one at the beach


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:26 PM
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Fucking east-coasters.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:28 PM
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Which beach? Northern Maine? Brrrrr.


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:29 PM
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157: Joaquin Andujar Birdie. Disturbing, huh? If I went with our other turtle, it would be Li'l Bub Birdie.

Golf-themed neighborhood with absolutely no golf courses anywhere nearby.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:29 PM
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East-coasters fucking!


Posted by: md 20/400 | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:29 PM
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MD is in. w-lfs-n is out. But, send Belle.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:31 PM
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182, cont'd: Also, 3-year-olds should not be allowed to name turtles.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:33 PM
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182: Having a pet named Joaquin Andujar is great. Was it sufficiently loco to deserve the moniker?


Posted by: JP Stormcrow | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:33 PM
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It has to be the *first* street? Oh come on, I am not downgrading from Seaman to West 28th when I lived at Seaman for 10x as long, and had my father make "the profession, not the fluid" jokes long before I knew what he was talking about.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:33 PM
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Okay, no I won't.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:34 PM
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187: yeah I think "street you grew up on" is an acceptable compromise.


Posted by: Beefo Meaty | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:35 PM
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If Blume and BG dont come, we might not do it. So, I guess Sifu can come too.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:36 PM
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186: It was just a baby turtle. He escaped, with his brother, shortly after he was named. So yes.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:36 PM
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I use first pet and mother's unmarried name for the stripper/porn name, which in my case yields Tiger Maguire. An excellent one of one of my relations: Queenie Vo/lp/ic/el/la.


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:36 PM
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My porn/stripper name would be Henry Military.

Summer party! Woo!


Posted by: Matt F | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:37 PM
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If I went with my longest residence and pet ownership, it would be (get ready) Rusty 69.


Posted by: A White Bear | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:40 PM
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Original pet and street: Bigfoot Pine.

Switching to longest lived pet and longest residence (which is clearly not allowed) yields: Ruffy Reynolds.


Posted by: blortch | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:40 PM
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Joaquin Andujar...mmmm, sigh. Tied with Sixto Lezcano for the most fun name to say.


Posted by: Witt | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:41 PM
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We let my dad name our dogs growing up, and he named them after herpes medicine and jock itch medicine: Acyclovir and Teriomycin (sp?). Anyway we called them Ace and Terry.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:42 PM
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So my porn name could be Acyclovir 3rd Place.


Posted by: heebie-geebie | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:44 PM
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I can send you some acyclovir if you need it. We have too much here and it's going to expire.


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:46 PM
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If I can choose from any street I've ever lived on and any pet an immediate family member has owned, I could be Bubba Blackstone. Or ... Saffron Page. I haven't lived on very many interesting streets.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:50 PM
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That was very politic, Ned.


Posted by: ben w-lfs-n | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 8:50 PM
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If only I were born on 69th and Cuming, I would have had a great name. There are plenty of great street names on this annotated Google map.


Posted by: Peppi Orgon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:00 PM
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A friend of mine, when he was a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, had his room cleaned by a woman whose address was 69 Crotch Crescent. That has to win some kind of prize.


Posted by: Knecht Ruprecht | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:17 PM
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Porn name: Candy California.

Surname: confirmed by a co-worker of KR, is comprised in part of a Polish slur against Germans and means, roughly, "that family of dumb German people [who moved here to Poland]".


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:21 PM
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I ran across someone recently who lived on Licking Hole Lane. Nice.


Posted by: will | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:21 PM
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Goldie Salah ed-Din. Now if only I'd named the damned goldfish "Salome".


Posted by: DominEditrix | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:27 PM
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I could also be Swimmy Seaman--that was the first pet I had who was specifically mine instead of a family pet.


Posted by: Katherine | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:28 PM
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Oh, and will: you can certainly count eekbeat and me in for an RVA meetup. Just let us know the date well in advance so as to not book any shows or out-of-state travel. Woo! Next-day brunch at Coppola's!


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:28 PM
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Nemetznik or like that? The Slavic name for Germans often is derived from the word "nemetz" = mute. Or variants.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:51 PM
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209: Szwab.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:56 PM
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Szwab? (standard derogatory name for a German) Prusak? (Prussian, also means cockroach - us Poles really love Germans.

209 being pedantic - niemiec - German, niemy/a mute.


Posted by: tkm | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 9:59 PM
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Talking of Jewish names - my grandmother's family must not have paid up since her maiden name was Zimmerspitz. She used to swear that one of her classmates was Mistaufstrasse.


Posted by: tkm | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 10:02 PM
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standard derogatory name for a German

So I hear. Which is why I'm wondering why we incorporated it into our Polish surname. Probably some dumb Polack* thing.

*Actually another family name!


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 10:03 PM
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203 - that's too funny. Crotch Crescent made me laugh whenever I went past it. And of course, it's a crescent, so when you're going along the road it's off, you get to see it twice!


Posted by: asilon | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 11:22 PM
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My last name is a respelling of a Swedish name that contained weird diacritical marks but was often mispronounced as a common American swear word. So Grandpa changed it. Of course now everyone thinks it's Irish. Sigh.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 11:53 PM
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Of course now everyone thinks it's Irish

There are worse fates in the world, McBitch.


Posted by: Stanley | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 11:57 PM
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Porn name: Cookie Nottingham. Not bad.


Posted by: bitchphd | Link to this comment | 03- 3-08 11:59 PM
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Houses in Crotch Crescent are usually about 10% cheaper than identical houses in non-offensively-named streets in Marston. I've always thought that the university should replace all the crazy financial schemes to help academics buy local housing with a straightforward one-off payment to the city council to give *all* the streets offensive names. Nobody's going to pay three million quid to commute to London every day from Anal Drive.


Posted by: Nasi Lemak | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 1:05 AM
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Jaguar Laze Simi d;a would be my porn name, which is not really very exciting, even with the unicode.

My own name is unbelievable common; my wife's maiden name so rare that it is safe to assume that anyone who shares it is a relative. When first she discovered the internet, I showed her altavista or whatever we used in those days, and she found a student in Chicago who shared the first and last names of her incredibly boring uncle, but used the middle name "Firecrutch".

He's probably on Unfogged now.


Posted by: Nworb Werdna | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 1:38 AM
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it would be even more exciting if the unicode worked. Where are czech-speaking scotsmen when you need them?
I was trying to do a c with a hacek on top of it.


Posted by: Nworb Werdna | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 1:39 AM
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"Firecrotch". Fuck. I need more coffee.


Posted by: Nworb Werdna | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 1:39 AM
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my wife's maiden name so rare that it is safe to assume that anyone who shares it is a relative.

My wife's likewise. Although recently this has been complicated by the Vietnamese immigration to the US, as several people seem to have "anglicised" their name to it by accident (my wife is Irish).


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 2:26 AM
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Our first pet was a chocolate lab named Boswell. The first street I remember living on was Pinckney. I don't think that Boswell Pinckney works as much of a name at all.


Posted by: Bostoniangirl | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 5:48 AM
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I don't think that Boswell Pinckney works as much of a name at all.

I think you're overlooking the possibilities for authoring Civil War novels.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 5:59 AM
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Or opening the bowling for the West Indies.


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:08 AM
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222: "Ing" is a Sino-Norwegian name. "Yuengling" is a Sino-German name, though the Chinese spelling is non-standard.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:09 AM
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Fluffy Pearl. Aw, yeah.

My last name is pretty much made up, and it's a first name, causing no end of misunderstandings over the phone. My father's mother's second husband changed his name from Finkelstein, and successfully chose something that throws off people's Jew-dar.


Posted by: mrh | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:15 AM
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"Gypsy Pike" would be a slightly pornier name than "Gypsy Highway 52". "Crisco Pike" is pretty bad (the cat's name).

I was about 12 before I knew that our street had a name. An attempt was made to bring Wobegon into the modern word about 1960. Before that we thought very concretely, indicating things by pointing or by definite descriptions.

Same for the cat; "Crisco" is the only name I remember, but I'm not sure we really called her that. I suppose "Kitty Pike" would meet some kind o bare minimum standard.


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:15 AM
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Oh, and will: you can certainly count eekbeat and me in for an RVA meetup. Just let us know the date well in advance so as to not book any shows or out-of-state travel. Woo! Next-day brunch at Coppola's!

No, Stanley. Brunch at Godfrey's.


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:32 AM
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"Firecrotch". Fuck. I need more coffee.

I can assure you that coffee will not cure firecrotch.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:38 AM
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202: The site is missing "Clit Court" in Albany, NY.

Lat: 42°41'35.20"N

Long: 73°46'55.01"W


Posted by: Biohazard | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:39 AM
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If you're allowed the first street you can actually remember, I come up with Shabby Kings, which is a rubbish porn name, but has a certain charm.


Posted by: OneFatEnglishman | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 6:42 AM
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My porn name is Mickey Goodnight. That actually has quite a ring to it.


Posted by: pdf23ds | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 7:01 AM
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232: It would work for clown porn (NSFW).


Posted by: John Emerson | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 7:17 AM
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"Rikki Charlesfield". WASPy, and yet wrong.


Posted by: Nathan Williams | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 7:32 AM
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If I got to use my first street and pet that wasn't while living under my parents' roof, it would be Protein 54.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 8:05 AM
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If I got to use my first street

For some reason, I read that as "I got to use my street name," with predictable results: "Apo has a street name? Actually, I could see that."


Posted by: SomeCallMeTim | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 8:09 AM
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A couple of ex-local friends now live in Richmond and Rah and I have wanted to visit them for some time. A Richmond party would mesh nicely with that.


Posted by: Robust McManlyPants | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:00 AM
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238:

Everyone told me that Rah was the better half, but I didnt get to meet him so that would be a good opportunity.


Posted by: Will | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:06 AM
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Apo has a street name

Li'l Freaky.


Posted by: lw | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:07 AM
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My last name is pretty much made up, and it's a first name, causing no end of misunderstandings over the phone. My father's mother's second husband changed his name from Finkelstein, and successfully chose something that throws off people's Jew-dar.

Hebrewsmasher?


Posted by: Cryptic Ned | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:10 AM
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I think you'll find that Colonel Jeffers is even more of a rapscallion in my new one. Although of course the focus is still on the heroism of Mulligan's Independent Cavalry Company, there's still time for good fun.


Posted by: Boswell Pinckney | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:14 AM
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I am a foreigner
Arab and Lur collide
My last name came out of the sky
Yeah, from the desert like a Shia spy
It came from a cleric's backside
You know it looks so good tonight.

I am a foreigner
I swim under glass
I look through my goggles so bright
I see a lifeguard play bass tonight
I see my bright and hollow life
In a blog where racists write
And everything looks good tonight.


Posted by: redfoxtailshrub | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:28 AM
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My porn name is kind of like apo's, except I don't even need to go to my adulthood to get it: Beelzebub 254.


Posted by: m. leblanc | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 9:34 AM
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Hebrewsmasher?

Hitler.


Posted by: mrh | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:04 PM
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My porn name sounds like an Austen/Gaiman mashup.


Posted by: Cala | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:11 PM
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Barkley Rural Route 1.

It's a little better with the mother's maiden name thing: Barkley Bernat.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:23 PM
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Or by the rules of 236, I'd be Bertrand Russell Wydown.


Posted by: Blume | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:25 PM
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Coco Arlington. Before the dog, though we had a parakeet named GWOT.


Posted by: Jackmormon | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:41 PM
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It's a little better with the mother's maiden name thing

Ooh, I remembered there was a short-lived goldfish some years before Midnight the cat. So, using the maiden name, I get good alliteration: Flipper Fleming.


Posted by: apostropher | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 3:53 PM
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Napoleon fought a battle at an (Austro-Hungarian) river bearing my (German) last name. Hence, it is carved on the Arc de Triomphe.

We didn't know this until we were in Paris, innocently touristing around and -- bam -- there it was! Quite exciting when I was 12. (I've also verified that it's on the replica arch in Las Vegas, you'll be happy to know.)


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 4:10 PM
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GWOT

Global War on Terror?


Posted by: Sir Kraab | Link to this comment | 03- 4-08 4:11 PM
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