Nicknames

I had a nickname all through my school years and to be honest I didn't care one way or the other about it. I didn't like or dislike the name. In fact I didn't think much about it until my junior year in high school. I was running for an elected office in my senior class and the vast majority of people knew only by my nickname so I wondered if they saw my real name on the ballot would they know who to vote for. To my surprise everyone got it right and I won quite easily.

Here we are in 2007 and I feel like President Bush has given nicknames a bad name. A great Texas tradition of slapping everyone you know with a friendly moniker has been tarnished by "old Blackie" mismanaging the Katrina disaster relief effort. I shudder now when John Stewart uses one of Bush's shorthand names in his mocking voice. So, the question is, is Bush killing the nickname?

Maybe, or maybe nicknames are better left for school days. I still have fun thinking back on some of my favorites. My good friend Grey Kitchens became Pink Bathrooms. Jimmy Springfield became Springding. Hunt Holesomback who fainted one day in a meeting became Hunt Holdmeup. All fun with real names. Some were even more creative. There was a guy in school who I have no idea what his real name was, we always called him Mark Boom's mother's other son. Before Brangelina there was Flang (Floyd and Angie) and last but not least we could never come up with a good nickname for one of my closest friends Kirk Cameron, he became, the guy with no nickname.