Re: [Harp-L] Re: Nicknames

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

K-Dog,

I have had a few nicknames in my day. Back when I was a teenager, I worked at a Boy Scout camp all summer, every summer. They called me rebel. When I went to college, I got the nickname "Bird Dawg." 
 I was quite fond of Bird Dawg, but it was more of redneck nickname, though, than a gangsta name. When I was going to school in Austria, some of the Austrians called me "the Big American." I was 6' 2''and when I stood next to the Austrians at the "Haus" B&B where we stayed, they looked like they were standing in a hole (an old W.C. Fields joke from "The Bank Dick" and "The Dentist."). 

I am, however, a benevolent giver of nicknames. I remember my sister in law brought home a boyfriend who insisted on being called "D-Dog" or something like that. Instead, I called him whistle di@#" That's the only nickname I ever gave outside the King's English. 
My late maternal grandpa was the ultimate nickname giver. Everybody was given one upon acceptance in the family. It was a right of passage for people marrying into the family. I was "punkin," my dad was "meathead," one of his sons was "Hoss," we still call him that.  I remember a cousin had a long-term boyfriend he named "Sweet Pea." They broke up, which seemed like a waste of a good nickname.

In other news... I've a reputation for being the only outdoors writer in West Virginia to regularly quote Shakespeare on the Outdoors page. In tomorrow's paper, I managed to quote both William Shakespeare and Earl Pitts, Uhmerikun, in the same outdoors column. 
The Shakespeare was "Your means are slender and your waste is great..." from King Henry IV, Part II. The Pitts quote was "You know what makes me sick? You know what makes me so angry I just want to symbolically lay down in front of a threshing combing to save a helpless field of wheat?"
There has to be some kind of Pulitzer category for a fusion of Earl Pitts and Shakespeare. 


Dave
________________
Dave Payne
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com 


----- Original Message ----
From: Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, April 5, 2008 2:39:50 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] Re: Nicknames

Dan wrote:
>That's true Bill.  Even I go by the handle Dapper Dan the Axeman those 
>names were given to me.  I didn't make them up.  I got the Dapper Dan from 
>a college friend and the Axeman I got from a friend here in Columbus.

Phillip Roth described one of his characters as not so much striving to 
make a name for himself as trying to make a nickname for himself.

I was given the name KDogg by an LA gangsta who took a liking to me, just 
before he went off on a three year vacation sponsored by the state.  I kept 
it because I liked the provenance.

But then I found out that someone else on Harp-l had the nickname KDogg, 
and I ceded it to him for use on Harp-l.

Is that guy still participating, or can I take my nickname back?

Ken

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