A "MIDGE" BY ANY OTHER NAME...

"What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet"

Romeo and Juliet Act II. Scene II
by William Shakespeare

I was struck one day in the high school where I work, that the two secretaries in the main office were named Midge and Dottie. I thought, wow. How PERFECT is that? If I was writing a screenplay with a scene in a high school office, I would name the secretaries Midge and Dottie. Both middle aged women who run the place with motherly smiles and an iron fist.

And I thought, I wonder if going through life with these names, given at birth or acquired as nicknames (Midge = Madge = Margaret) (Dottie = Dorothy), affected their lives somehow? Was Midge destined to be a secretary instead of stripper?

("Donna". I rest my case...)

A good friend of mine has been on a few dates with a stripper named Brandy. And yes, that's her real name. She showed him her driver's license. She joked that her parents doomed her to be a stripper by choosing it.

My old land lord in college was named Dirk. Meanwhile there's a student in my high school named Wilbur. (He goes by Willie. See? Even he doesn't want to be called Wilbur) How varied are the lives of Dirk and Wilbur? If they met in a bar would Wilbur be secretly jealous of Dirk? Would Dirk immediately think, "poor bastard"?

Lets experiment. I Google-Imaged "Dirk". This was the first image on the page:

The Scottish Dirk.

A sleek looking dagger. A weapon of war/utility/survival. The rest of the page was an assortment of large, blond, viking looking men battling it out in various sports. 

I Google-Imaged "Wilbur". Here was the first image, no joke:

(he could use a dirk! i kid...)

This was the second:

Referencing the lead character "Wilbur" in the popular book Charlotte's Web. The rest of the page was an assortment of pigs & people named Wilbur. Could there really be a difference in the lives of the two men by name alone?

And then there's me. "Mark". I feel its plain. Simple. Short. I don't dislike it. (no worries mom and dad)

In trooth its related to Mars, the God of War. Sounds interesting, no? But what if I was Maximilian? Rupert? Rocco? Mortimer, Donovan or Spike? How would I have been perceived differently by the humans around me?

I'll never know, I spoze. But it makes me wonder.

Who would you be if you weren't you? 

MJW

FUEL GAUGE GAUGING INTELLIGENCE?

Using my mother's car lately, I noticed her gas gauge looks like this:

Note the use of marks for quarter tanks between full ("F"), half full (I'm a gas tank half full, not half empty kind of guy), and empty ("E").





 

Then, borrowing my father's car for an errand, I noticed his gas gauge looked like this. (right)

Note the LACK of marks for quarter tanks.

So I was wondering, what does this say about the car manufacturer? What are they saying about us as the owner of the vehicle?

Is the manufacturer of my mother's car (Toyota) implying that she's too stoopid to gauge quarter tanks on her own, so they put marks there for her?

And the manufacturer of my father's car (Honda) is implying his superior intelligence in that he can figure out quarter tanks on his own based on the needles position between Full and Empty?

(Discuss).

HELPFUL TIP - GAUGING YOUR GAUGE: When borrowing a car and you pull in for fuel not knowing what side the tank is on, often there is a tiny arrow on the fuel gauge indicating left or right. (see top photo) Hopefully this will save you some fuel having to flip the car around.

MJW

Publish Post

A MATTER OF LIFE AND DISCO

Heading from the parking lot into a nightclub a while back, my friend and I saw an ambulance parked out front with all its lights flashing. No siren, no emergency that we could see, but I couldn't help but notice the fine line between an emergency vehicle designed to save lives, and a disco dance party.

Observe...

Potential Death (click for video, "back" to return to blog)

Potential Disco (click for video, "back" to return to blog)

Swapping high-pitched sirens for high-tech techno, ambulances are mobile discotheques.

MJW