06.07.08
WTF?
Jesus but it’s humid. It makes yard work hot and sweaty. Good for the health, I guess.
06.03.08
A rose by any other name is still a rose.
With the passing of Bo Diddley this week, the awareness of the power of a name, namely my name, once again comes to the forefront. While I’ve pined and longed for a nickname forever, most believe that “Beau”, in and of itself is a perfectly good one. I get along fine with it and have come to that great place with my name where once it was a heavy load but is now a source of pride. You don’t come into contact with many Beau’s and when you do, you tend to remember them. There is of course all the mispronouncement and mis-hearing issues and if I had a nickel for every time I had this conversation I’d be rich:
“Hi, this is Beau.”
“Paul?”
“Beau.”
“Bill?”
“Beau…like B-O, Bo.”
“Bo? I had a dog named Bo once.”
I know; my life is hard sometimes but I persevere. And so Bo Diddley, who passed this week, was actually the nickname my Uncle Mark gave me. He has kind of a southern Ohio accent so it comes out as “bo-DID-lee” which I’ve always thought was cool. My other cousin Sonia has always called me Beauregard though my name is not a shortened version of it, nor am I related to that family though being related to this family, you never can tell. I have a cousin who calls me Bocephus even though I don’t sing or look like Hank Williams Jr and my Aunt Anne calls me Bo-Zeppy which I think sounds like one of the brothers in an italian flying trapeze act, The Flying Zeppy’s. If Bo Zeppy ever caught on with people, I would have used “Zep” as my nom de’rigeur which I think is kinda cool. Of course the one nickname that is forever in my heart but which is strictly forbidden from anyone using other than my grandmother, is her delightful and endearing Bo-Peep. Strangely, no one has gone for what I would consider the easy name, Bobo, who was a clown, but perhaps that is just out there, waiting to jump up with a new group of friends.