Explain Your Ricochet Handle
We had a long conversation a few weeks ago about whether people on Ricochet should have pseudonymous handles, or whether full disclosure requires us to use our real names. I, for one, understand why some want to remain anonymous (work, relatives, bill collectors, and on and on).
What I'd like to know is why you chose your handle and what it means (I'm talking to you Western Chauvinist, Sawatdeeka, Fredosphere, Mama Toad, FreeWifiDuringSermon, Crow's Nest, and Pseudodyonisius--and many others). [Natalie and Fred Cole: I think you're exempt from this one; unless, of course, you're trying to fake us out with a name that appears to be the real one].
I'll go first. I really don't care if people know my real name (Ted Smith), but I like my handle. The symbolism of a blank slate can cut both ways (Am I conceding my stupidity? Or am I touting my willingness to learn new things despite my advanced age?) You be the judge. I also like the irony of my avatar: a blank slate that isn't really blank because it has "blank slate" written on it. Actually, I chose my handle for the most mundane of reasons: because I like Latin phases and that one sounded cool (when you go through life named "Ted Smith," you yearn for something a bit jazzier).
Finally, as I pointed out a week or so ago, I got a direct shout-out from Charles Krauthammer. This was a feature of my handle that was completely unintended. [Yes, I am trying to get you to link to my personal Dr. K shout-out: I'd like to extend my 15 minutes of fame another 15 minutes].
And, by the way, I'm reading a book by the great English social commentator Theodore Dalrymple entitled Second Opinion. Lo and behold, I ran into this sentence (Dalrymple was criticizing the English education system):
“[S]chools round here leave the tabula of the human mind strictly rasa.”
So, two shout-outs in as many weeks (we'll ignore the fact that Dalrymple actually wrote his book in 2006). What's keeping George Will from entering the fray?
So, even if you have a less famous, less "elite" handle than mine, tell us why you chose it and what it means.
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Comments:
Nov '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
"Sawatdeeka" is the formal greeting of women in Thailand. I started using it as a sign-in name/screen name years ago, because I'd try variations of "Angie" and it would be rejected with the message This name is already in use by another member. Not so with sawatdeeka. So I use it freely and widely.
Maybe I shouldn't have shared that on a public forum . . .
Jul '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
My Dad is papamoose so that makes me boymoose.
Old story about how we became men of the moose and outside the scope of your excellent question.
Jun '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
sawatdeeka: "Sawatdeeka" is the formal greeting of women in Thailand. I started using it as a sign-in name/screen name years ago, because I'd try variations of "Angie" and it would be rejected with the messageThis name is already in use by another member. Not so with sawatdeeka. So I use it freely and widely.
Maybe I shouldn't have shared that on a public forum . . . · 2 minutes ago
I think your name just entered the public domain.
Jun '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
I've given this some serious thought, and it makes sense.
Jan '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Like you, I felt that my real name - Joe Brown - was not very 'cool' and I needed something else. Willow Spring is the name of the old farm where we live. At least to me, it is an homage to earlier times in our country. The main house is a log home built about the time ( 1803) of the Lewis and Clarke expedition.
Feb '12
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
I figured that since I was paying to join a club with a Code of Conduct, the right thing to do would be to use my real name. I used to use "Capt. Queeg" over at the Website That Shall Not Be Named. Why? No reason.
Jul '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
J.Voss, shortened from Julius Voss is the main character of a book that I have been writing for going on 6 years now. I sort of 'grew up' in the internet age and the most original lesson that I can recall from that experience is to never use your real name on the internet. Some habits die hard.
-Patrick C.
Jun '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Didn't know that. My name is not Ted Smith--it's really Christopher Bowen or Joe Brown. Never heard of anyone named Ted Smith.
Oct '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Texas geologist... seems like a good fit.
Nov '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
My real name is actually Engelbert Humperdinck. Fred Cole is just a clever pseudonym. I have a system of morality where the most moral thing is the thing that requires the least muscle movement. Engelbert Humperdinck is 20 keystrokes including the space versus nine for Fred Cole.
Sep '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
I'll go into more detail in a Member Post, but suffice for now to say that Pseudo Dionysius in antiquity was never who he purported to be. His thought hasn't survived though because of a misplaced deference to his fictitious authority (he wasn't a Pauline convert) but the words that he wrote. Likewise, I'm not interested in writing to have a light reflect on me, but elsewhere.
Sep '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Sep '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
From the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Pseudo Dionysius
Edited on August 22, 2012 at 9:27pmSep '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
And if you wanted to sum it up in music here it is.
Jun '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
This is deep stuff. I thought it was because you like people to think you love wine-making and wine-drinking (when, deep down, what you really like is a cold Diet Coke).
Mar '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
The crow’s nest is something of an anachronism.
The name has a long sea-faring history. Originally, the term referred to the cage on Viking longboats where birds were kept until they were set free to help navigate treacherous coastal waters in fog. You could say crows were chosen because they seek a grounded, certain, firm place (their flight-path is useful in dead-reckoning); or perhaps it is better said that even though they caw about with complaints, they have a clear-sighted, natural sense of direction in the moments of confusion where it is most needed.
In the later ages of sail in Europe, a crow’s nest was a basket or barrel on the mainmast of many men-of-war where lookouts were stationed, always observing the horizon, in order to spot vessels or other hazards (the relationship of height of eye to the horizon in NM is appx 1.144 times the square root of your height of eye in feet). The lookout was always looking purposefully in the same direction as the helmsman and captain, but being at a height he inevitably saw further down that same line of bearing than they did.
Jun '12
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
The "Conservative" part of my moniker is probably pretty easy to figure out.
I got "Wanderer" from two concepts... one, I've lived in multiple states across the continental US, so I "wander" in that sense, and when discussing things I tend to "wander" from topic to topic... sometimes even within a single blog post.
Put 'em together and there ya go. :)
Jun '10
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Crow's Nest: The crow’s nest is something of an anachronism.
The name has a long sea-faring history. Originally, the term referred to the cage on Viking longboats where birds were kept until they were set free to help navigate treacherous coastal waters in fog. You could say crows were chosen because they seek a grounded, certain, firm place (their flight-path is useful in dead-reckoning); or perhaps it is better said that even though they caw about with complaints, they have a clear-sighted, natural sense of direction in the moments of confusion where it is most needed.
As Johnny Carson used to say: "I did not know that." I get all my seafaring information from Patrick O'Brian.
Mar '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
Govicide is the name of my series of conservative, sci-fi books. First one is here. It's a made-up word, created by me. It means, "the killing of government."
Sep '11
Re: Explain Your Ricochet Handle
John Murdoch was the tutor of Scotland's famed poet, Robert Burns.