Readers Digest has or perhaps still does a few pages of jokes titled 'Humor in Uniform' which gave me the idea of the title for this write up.
Some first or last names that people carry around or more appropriately get referred to when used in another context can sound silly, humorous or scary..
The language can do wonders or confound depending on your perspective. Some examples -
1. Lance - a prominent contemporary first name but when used to describe - the doctor decided to lance the boil - makes it lose its charm? Separate blog on how some of these word associations came to be - I have never heard of anything else being lanced other than boils. And what the hell are boils anyway? I thought liquids boiled?
2. Stone - another hollywoody incarnation or perhaps more profound but used to describe - they found a stone the size of a golf ball in her kidneys - puts a different slant to the name.
3. Guy - You might wonder if this person had any self esteem growing up? He's just this guy I met down the sidewalk.
4. Peter - What might the self confidence of a person thusly named be when a profound warning can be described as 'don't peter out'
5. April or May or any month of your choosing - typically used to help the offspring not forget their birth month is my guess.
6. Some folks also perfer to remember the country of their birth or something more tangible by naming their children - America and India come to mind.
I am really looking forward to meeting someone called Bora Bora. Which brings me to my next profound question - how do we decide what to call natives of a particular land -
Someone from America is American and from India is Indian. But Vietnam gets the honor of having their denizens referred to as Vietnamese? Who made that rule? As opposed to Vietnaman?
So could the Bora Bora dude be called Boran Boran or Boranese Boranese or Bora Borai (like Thai? or Hawa Hawaii?)
Here is another essay on the subject of first names. As in birth names. Or names provided to an offspring at birth. While the developed world tends to shy away from the exotic like Refrigerator or Coca Cola for their new production there is a plethora of Jims and Johns and Bobs or Robs. Speaking of which I do not think there is a categoric decision point at the time of birth if a child will be hereafter called as Bob. I mean have not yet met a toddler called Bob or Rob for that matter. At some point though the parental instinct to mouth out multiple syllables runs out and they switch from calling the crawler Robert to simply Robbie to Rob. Now speaking of - it is strange that the name sounds like something you would not want Rob to do - i.e. Rob anyone. Then why call someone that? After all Rob Peter to Pay Paul is not exactly a maxim to live a young life? Is it? Perhaps Peter or Paul might want to have a say in it? Then there is this matter of going to the John. Why degrad...
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