Hola, Sneakers. Welcome to Episode 474 – our first episode of the new year!
This week: Mr. Bass Man; wiggling down under; rotisserie orc; fantasy odd couple; unexplored worlds; danger D’n’D; get it right; computer sex; game nights people play; weird dice; musical theatre kid; racial seasoning; kiddie cartoons; useless parental advice; how to how to draw; charming child; high anxiety school; free range children; child support; young fogeys; don’t laugh; these are the Daves we know; the name game; the not-so Dark Ages; bad science; the humblest century; hindsight to 2020; Question of the Week – Sneakers respond; joke spoiler; vegan X-mas; pavlyoda; fry up; how to podcast; panic; Boba’s your uncle; Darth Gecko; brine it on home; and, finally, Happy New Year!
Thanks for listening.
Question of the week: What are your New Year’s resolutions?
Sub-question of the week: What were you almost named? Do you like your name or is there a different name you wish you’d been called?
Louise’s Baby Yoda pavlova:
Ed’s holiday greetings to Dragons and Sneakers alike:
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Hi Ian and Dave,
Happy New Year! We made it through 2020 somehow, and here we are at the beginning of a new and improved 2021.
Loved your last show, especially your deep-fried turkey talk. I’d never heard of deep frying a turkey, which is weird as I come from Glasgow – the home of deep frying. Chip shops there used to deep fry everything. Obviously fish, that’s expected. But pies, chicken, sausage, haggis, black pudding, pizza….. wallop! Straight in the fryer. A deep-fried pizza, with chips on top all stuck to the oily cheesy tomato gloop, was out of this world. No wonder Glasgow used to be the heart attack capital of Europe! When I moved to London I was disappointed to find how healthy chippies were. Here the only thing they fry is fish and chips. They’ve never heard of a deep-fried black pudding supper.
Your question about names really resonates with me. It’s a long story so feel free to skip past. It’s a story that starts in Glasgow in the late 60s. A young 17-year-old hippy called Helen was happily living her life, working as a trainee in a hairdressers and happily engaged to her long-time boyfriend Pete. She went to a party one night with her work colleagues and there she met a slightly older guy called Ronnie. Ronnie was in his mid-20s and came from a more ‘middle class’ family. He had all the trendy clothes and fancy patter. A few weeks after the party Helen found herself in a bit of a predicament. She had to break off her engagement with Pete and tell Ronnie that he was going to be a daddy. Neither man was happy. Helen and Ronnie were married six months later, very much against Ronnie’s family’s wishes. Helen was a bit too common for them. But married they were and a couple of months later they had a beautiful wee baby boy.
They decided to call the wee fella Joseph, or Joe for short. Helen’s dad was called Joseph and her brother was Joe. So off to the registry office went Ronnie to register the birth of baby Joseph. On the way he popped into his parents house for some reason, and then went on to the registry office. When he came home, he showed Helen little Joe’s birth certificate and there it was, in black and white and legally binding…. Scott Campbell McGinnis.
As you can imagine my mum was pretty furious. My dad had taken it upon himself to give me a totally different name to the one they’d agreed. My dad’s middle name was Scott and his mum’s maiden name was Campbell. Between leaving the house, stopping off to see his parents, and then going on to the registry office, my name was changed. Their short, unhappy marriage only stumbled along for a few more months, but my name has been Scott Campbell McGinnis for over half a century now.
So, to answer your question, I was nearly called Joe. I never really liked the name Scott but it wasn’t too much of a big deal until I moved to London. Everyone asks me what my real name is after they’ve known me a little while. They assume Scott’s a nickname, like Jock or Hamish. Sometimes I tell them that yes, Scott is my nickname and I’m really called Tarquin or Rupert.
Hope my story wasn’t too long or too boring.
Take it easy Sneakers,
Scott (or Joe)
Scott, that is a fantastic story…well, maybe not for your mum…but the sort you’d read in some quirky period novel with a teal cover and a whimsical line drawing of a broken engagement ring lying on pair of knickers.
This year, I resolve to be more patient and not as easily irritated…so I’d appreciate it if everyone would stop being so annoying…immediately!
I surprised my mom and dad by being born a few minutes after my twin brother (this was before ultrasound) so they got to use both the boy’s name and the girl’s name they’d picked out. I like my name okay, but with four vowels, it’s hard to spell and people who’ve learned English as a second language find it hard to pronounce. Hey, after all this time I just realized not only is there an “i” in Louise, there is also a “oui.” My sister’s name would have been Robert if she’d been a boy…so we were one Y chromosome away from having to tell our nieces and nephew, “Bob’s your uncle.”
My new year’s resolution – to lose weight (as per usual); buuuuut – this year I’m gonna do it!!!!
I’ve got some other resolutions like get my horse trained so that I can start taking him out places (mainly horse shows) but there are a lot of variables at play there, so am prepared (once again! for disappointment in that department, having been foiled over the past couple of years by little things like ruptured hamstrings and covid epidemics that threw a wrench in my plans.
What was I almost named? Mark (my Dad’s mom’s maiden name was Marks) – but surprise! I was a girl. My mom was quite unprepared for this, as she was convinced I was going to be a boy. Apparently I was nameless for about three weeks. There was a lot of lobbying from my Dad’s Great Aunt Hazel, whose birthday was the day after mine. She was adamant that I be named after her. The name Hazel was very out of fashion at the time, so eventually my mom decided to try Hazel backwards, and henceforth, I have been Lezah.
My New Year’s resolutions. Stop making false predictions and rising deceptive hopes by wishing “a good” year to everybody.
Next question ? Was it Stéphane or Sebastien? Don’t really matters anymore, though, as I don’t like any of those, not that I ever really like Régis either, a strange firstname, nobody is called that. Except maybe Régis Debray, the french Ché, not the Frenchie, the French Ché. Or rather the French second to the Ché.
So I got accustomed to be the one and only Régis. At first It went well with my loneliness, but got some side effects over the time.
As one day in the 80’s as I was still subjecting myself to the torture of watching TV, I stumble upon a show where one of the contestants was named Régis, Yeah, shocking, I know. More shocking was that I discover that hosts repeats the names of contestants every 5 seconds… It drove me nuts, I thing that since this day I’m not quite myself anymore.
And each time I encounter one of those IRL (In Regis Life), we are watching each other, thinking « How does this guy dare to wear the Almighty name which is mine ». Which tend to prove that THEY are really dumb… So I put them out of my misery. I think there’s now more white bears than « them ».
Oh and today I made some numerology. My favorite number is 5, I had only made the connection with the length of my name some years back. I’m a computer engineer and in binary 5 is 101… One O One, neat ! And it’s a palindrome.
So I which you the best possible ok-ish year, at least better than 2020.
And speaking of palidrom, I think I will, myself, wait to the 12th of february to make my mind, but it’s only working in french. In the American way you will have to wait until the second of december… Soooorry. But wait ! I checked, in Canada it’s the symmetrical of the french, few… that was close.
Maybe it means that Trump will only leave his office by mid-december… oh god!
But I was told that numerology might possibly be just crap.
But of course, I’m waiting impatiently for the 500th, 505th and, naturally, the 555th (the number of the best) episodes of the best sneakiest and dragony show on Internet . And I will not miss any episodes before and in between.
I have a question ! Do you think you will get to the 5555th ? The 55555th is maybe asking too much… But it’s the neatest of all, numerologically speaking. So pleeeaaase…
I don’t make New Years resolutions, but I do make a yearly vision board, which usually contains smaller goals. One of my goals for next year: see my friends! Obviously haven’t seen my main friend group in person since the “before times”, so I can’t wait to see them once more. I also choose a quote each year, and this year’s is “if not now, then when?”. There have been days where not much of anything gets done, really hoping to make the most of each day, and to stop procrastinating my work this year. So I guess that’s my resolution.
I was told what my other name options were, but seeing as I can’t remember, it must’ve been just okay.
I love my name! And I really like my full name, Jada Jackman, it just sounds good. I haven’t meet anyone else with my name, I know Jada Smith (Will Smith’s wife), but it’s not common for sure. The only hang up I have is that people tend to have a problem both pronouncing and remembering my name. I have a theory that’s it’s harder to remember someone’s name if you’ve just heard that name for the first time. You’ve got to the the name itself and also remember the face.
Pleased to meet you (again)
Hope you guess my name…
I forgot something, and talking about hellish things : Only connect ! What the F…. It’s driving me crazy, not being English complicate a little bit the all experience… but it’s facinating. The IQ tests should look like something like that, a cross-over between culture and logic.
Are they all Mensa’s ?
Hopefully the more you practice the less weird it is… but still.
Hey, errr, humm.
I know it’s starting to be ambarrassing…
But could I let you with a satanic after taste… Sure noooo!
So as God always said “one more thing !”
Wait a minit’ What’s what ?
Oh, sorry, It’s Jobs with a J… and a S (are they several ? Like the Gates – this one with a G ???)
Nevertheless, you were wondering about decapitation by Guillotine™©® and survival so check this out :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hm9jjAJnsE
What again ?
Oh, it seems that internet is Evil too… Darn !
So, so, sorry…
When you asked about resolutions, my first thought was, ‘Nah, I don’t do those’. Then I remembered I’d decided to give up alcohol and snacking between meals during January, so I guess that counts. It’s the end of day six as I write this and all is going well.
I’ve also decided finally to make more fully-fledged recordings of songs I’ve been writing over the last few years. There’s a ton of ’em in crude demo form that I’ve been meaning to record properly for ages and 2021 feels like the time.
I was almost another David, as it happens, which would have been alright with me. When I was growing up, my folks called me Christopher, and I HATED the sound of that. It’s like they had a blind spot over the similarity between Christopher Roberts and Christopher Robin. And who wants to be that guy, right?
The definition of “resolution” is “A firm decision to do or not to do something”, so I’m making a firm decision to not make any unrealistic resolutions…a resolution to not make resolutions. Last year I lost about 20 pounds by walking more which was a result of just getting outside during the lockdown, it wasn’t a resolution at all. I’ve continued this into 2021 so I’ll keep that going. It’s a good way to catch up of all the Sneaky Dragon podcasts too.
Both my folks had a good time with the family when they named me. I was the first born Draganski son as well as the first born grandson on the Draganski side, so my birth was quite an event in 1965. My Dad had some fun with it and told his side of the family that he was naming me Bill. This infuriated the Draganski kin since there are already a handful of Bill Draganskis in the family but it was all in good fun. Then there was the idea of naming me Edwin but my mom wouldn’t have it, it reminded her too much of the classic comedian Ed Wynn, who she didn’t like. She also found out that my great Aunt Elsie had lost a baby at age two also named Edwin, so that was a no-go for Mom as well. Then my Dad considered naming me Kenneth Jr. after his name but that didn’t last long, we really have no tradition in my family of naming sons after their fathers. Then the name Charles was heavily considered, naming me after my Dad’s father but that got bumped to my middle name and Edward took it’s place. My Grandfather Draganski was Charles Edward Draganski, so I would become Edward Charles instead. My Mom also had an Uncle Edward, so that was also my namesake from Mom’s side. Everyone in my family or friends from childhood still call me Eddie, which is what I was called when I was young. At some point, probably my teens, I started going by Ed but Eddie is still fine with me…
On my Mom’s side of the family, which is an Italian/Hungarian mix, I’ve got a half dozen cousins with the same names…Michael and Nicole. Mom is one of seven children, so I have a lot of cousins and for some reason Mom’s side keeps using these two names over and over and it’s quite confusing because they’ve also married other Michaels and Nicoles.
“Hey Dad,” I’ll say, “Did you know Nicole was coming to Texas for a visit?”
“Which one?” asks Dad. “The one that married Michael?”
“Which Michael? The one that married your cousin Nicole or the other one?”
“What other one?” I ask.
“The one that played hockey and was dating another Michael before she had the baby.”
“No, not that Nicole, the other one…the one who’s brother is named Michael.”
“Oh, okay….is she bringing her husband Michael?”
“No Dad, she’s bringing the other Michael.”
“The one that was a paramedic?”
“That’s Kimberley’s husband Dad, you know…Mike?”
“Ohhhh, okay.”
So it’s that kind of thing and I’m not exaggerating. Do you remember the scene in “Goodfellas” when Paul Sorvino is introducing Lorraine Bracco to the family and they’re all named Paul, Paulie or Marie? And they’re all married to other Pauls and Maries? She finishes the scene with a voiceover that the entire experience made her feel drunk. Yeah, that’s my fucking family….
Ian, I totally get what you were saying about ComicCons being honestly portrayed in film and other media, it’s a tricky situation. Unless you’ve been, you’ll never really know what they’re like. I think what David said also rings true, that it’s a difficult task to accurately depict a Con without the licensed use of everything that makes a Con what it is. When you can’t show that overwhelming experience, which is a wall to wall trademarked backdrop, it falls short of the real deal. Mark Hamill did a film years ago and it wasn’t really that good, but he filmed a huge part of it at the San Diego ComicCon. It’s called “Comic Book The Movie” and even though the story isn’t that great, the Con aspect of it is dead on. Hamill plays a comic book store owner who writes a film about a Captain America type character and is selling the idea at the Con. Hamill has the family’s blessing (loosely based on Jack Kirby’s family) to the character’s rights, but the studio keeps trying to make the character something more violent and excessive like The Punisher, which Hamill doesn’t want. They do the film, which is like a film wrapped inside a mockumentary about Hamill’s film, and it features a bunch of real life Con guests as themselves…like Frank Miller for example. The other thing Hamill did with this film was cast the actors in it with other voice talents like himself (The animated Joker). At the time, much of the voice actors were losing work in films due to the fact studios were casting A-List actors to do animated voices, like Bruce Willis in “Over the Hedge”. This film was Hamill’s backlash to the studios by casting himself and other voice talent as the actors in the film. Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob Squarepants plays Hamill’s best friend in the film and is one of the things the film gets right. Kenny arrives at the Con with his family…a wife who doesn’t want to be there and an overloaded stroller of kids, who also don’t want to be there. How many times have we seen that at a Con? It might be an OK film but it gets the Con stuff right.
Hello David and Ian –
My given name is Richard. I was ‘Dick’ until 1985. Now I’m Rich.
When I was growing up, there were some good Dicks. Dick Tracy, Dick Butkis -middle linebacker for the Chicago Bears, Dick Cavett even. Historically, Richard the Lion-hearted…
In the last 50 years, Dick no longer means what it did to most people. Beside the vulgar slang and common definitions, (dick pics?) … for me, as a person, Dick Nixon put it to the edge of the cliff… and Dick Chaney pushed it over. I was embarrassed by my name.
When starting a new job in 1985, I was asked what I wanted to be called, Rich or Rick? I said Rich and have been so since. I have a few old friends who call me Dick, but they don’t mean anything by it.
I feel kind of bad coming in here AFTER Ed D, but here goes!
First, I just want to express many thanks, dear Ian and dear David, as others have, for helping get us all through 2020. You really gave us some of “the best of times” and I am grateful.
I guess I didn’t make any big resolutions for this coming year. As I write this, we have witnessed a ghastly occurrence at our Capitol Building in Washington DC and then some great things coming out of it. I would hope that the positive will continue to win over the negative… here in the US and in the world and in my own self for 2021. More kindness, thoughtfulness and understanding of others. Plus my husband and I, having completely surprised each other @ Christmas with guitars (I got him an electric one and he gave me an acoustic!) are learning this year to play!
My Mom told me she nearly named me “Marta” (with a nickname of “Martie”) which would have been alright. For some reason she settled on “Laurel” and called me “Laurie” most of the time. If a boy, I’d have been “Stephen” and, I have to assume following her pattern, she’d have called me “Stevie”! She was fond of the “ie” derivatives! My sisters are Julie and Leslie! I have not wished for a different name. This one is lovely.
A joyful New Year to you both and to all the Sneakers!
Ed? Do you have anything more to add…??? There’s still time…
I realize its way past the episode but I’ll take this opportunity to say I think the name “Laurel” is a very beautiful name, I like it much more than Marta.
Thanks for saying so, Ed! How kind of you!