Nicknames

There is an article in this months New Yorker magazine about nicknames. I haven't read it all yet, but it got me thinking about old times with my buds from college and high school. Almost everyone had a nickname, some were straighforward like a derivation of an actual surname, some were crafted over time. Here is a sampling of some of my favorites.

My friend Justin in 8th grade we called him the running maniac for how much he ran during track...that eventually evolved into the running man, and then just the man. Even today when talking about or too him I don't know anyone that doesn't call him "man".

Of course there is Kevin who broke the rules at ACU to live with us off campus before he could. So he got nicknamed the Kid

My friend Jeff, who just changed the last f to an e in spanish class thereby becoming "the boss" - Jefe.

Our neighbor on 1333 Westheimer with the asian wife who seemed confined to the house = Lt Dan. ("who goes to nam and doesn't like the rock and roll" - that is a joke for 3).

A guy named Premeaux, so we called him the Lousiana Swamp Rat, and ultimately just shortened it to Rat

Some surname nicknames: Herzog = "Zog", Wagner = "Wags", Neale = "Nanner", Runkles = "Runks"

Some teacher nicknames: Lord Jim, Orca, Batwings, The Mole, The Bash

Some nicknames not given as a compliment: The Golden Bear, The Pear, Munster, Poodle, Ghost, Shaw

And even my own nickname had a developmental history. Many people misspell my last name...ending it mick instead of mack. So that was my nickname - mickormack...which eventually just shortened to mick.

Anyone have any good nicknames to share?

Super Tuesday

I am a dork, you will get no argument from me. And this is going to be a political blog for a bit...skip to the bottom if you want a quick update on our next HSM2 production in the works.

On Tuesday night after Jodi had gotten home from teaching and we got the kids to bed I layed on the couch and watched CNN results about Super Tuesday. Got to see both McCain and Obama give there stump speeches.

A couple of thoughts on how things played out. For some reason I am really into this primary race on the Dem side. I think, trying to put personnal feelings aside, to me there seems to be such a difference between the tone of Obama vs. Clinton. When I hear Clinton talk I hear political machine...actually I got that feeling from McCain too, but that is a topic for another day.

When you listen to Obama there is something about him. Can't pinpoint it. Maybe it is his delivery, maybe he just seems like a fresh face, or maybe like on Super Tuesday it is seeing how he affects others. All through his speach I couldn't stop looking at these three ladies on the stage behind him. All three just seemed mesmerized...it was almost comical.

My parents can talk about JFK and how he was such a galvanizing force...someone that just seemed inspring even if you didn't agree with him. I don't think Obama is JFK, but I think he is the closet to that model that I have ever seen in my lifetime. I mean most of the people running for pres have either been career politcians, backwoods out of touch govenors (includes both current and former pres), or kookie billionaires.

Thankfully the people haven't yet coronated Clinton, and they get to keep campaigning. Obama is expected to pick up some more states, but then this morning on NPR I heard that Texas is a Clinton firewall...and I threw up in my mouth.

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On the HSM2 front. In preproduction: Jack has been working on his moves to "What Time is it" He is chad...the guy with the crazy hair. Need to try and get that on tape and up. He can sing along pretty good too.

Also, Molly and I have been working on "Gotta Go My Own Way". The part where Troy sings with Gabrielle. Molly knows all the words...we ran through it last night. Didn't have a camera man in the house. I think it had to do with some kind of writer's strike. If we can pull it off it should be another instant classic.

The more encouragement from the fans...the more effort I will put into getting it on tape.