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June 25, 2014

Childish Names

You Like Names That Are Forgotten and Quirky
You prefer a name that's offbeat, but not made up.

You like old names that are interesting sounding...

You're the type to name someone after a historical figure or fictional character.


You like a name that has a story behind it... hopefully spanning many generations.

Some female names you might like: Annabel, Clementine, Evangeline, Genevieve, Isadora, Lorelei, and Ophelia.

Some male names you might like: Cornelius, Dexter, Ferdinand, Gilbert, Jude, Rafael, and Ulysses.





Not so sure I'd agree with the results of this quiz exactly, and I've never had children, but I do think I'd prefer (or would have preferred) an old-fashioned name instead of something trendy. I always thought that, if I ever did have a daughter (and got to name her) I'd like to name her Bonnie Irene, after my two grandmothers.  That's fairly old fashioned, wouldn't you say? Then, along with the first letter of her last name, I could give her the nickname "BIDdy". Her mother, whoever that might have been, probably wouldn't have gone for that, but...what the heck, huh?

I like the female names in the results, but I'm not fond of any of the male names.  Cornelius reminds me of one of the primates in the movie "Planet of the Apes", Dexter brings to mind the serial killer in the series of the same name, Ferdinand makes me think of a pig...or Magellan.  Gilbert is one half of the comic opera writing duo, Jude makes me want to say "Hey!", Rafael was a painter or saint and Ulysses could be either an epic hero or a Union general. 

No, thanks.  I'd just as soon name him "Sue".

I try to not post too many quizzes, at least not more than one per "page" of the blog, but I had noticed the last one had slipped off into the archives and figured I could post another one. (in lieu of any actual significant content, as is the usual case with this blog)  Earlier tonight I had received my weekly newsletter from StrangeCosmos.com and read this article:

Why Do Celebrities Give Their Kids Strange Names?

Sage Moonblood, Moxie Crimefighter, Pilot Inspektor and Moon Unit: Are these proper nouns from a bad sci-fi novel? Perhaps. They are definitely the names of the children of Sylvester Stallone, Penn Jillette, Jason Lee, and Frank Zappa, respectively.

Indeed, when it comes to celebrity baby names, it gets weirder than Apple (the daughter of Gwyneth Paltrow and Coldplay frontman Chris Martin). Just yesterday, Mariah Carey announced that she and husband Nick Cannon have named their newborn twin son and daughter Moroccan and Monroe after the top floor of her apartment building and Marilyn Monroe, respectively. Why, oh why?

According to name expert Laura Wattenberg, the author of the name guide "The Baby Name Wizard" (Broadway, 2005) and founder of babynamewizard.com, unusual baby names are likely to emerge among populations of creative people.

Read the rest of the article.

I'm Still Standing - Elton John


June 24, 2014

Execution By Elephant

Execution by elephant was a common method of capital punishment in South and Southeast Asia, and particularly in India.

Man, that's heavy. - ahem -

That graphic, courtesy of Wiki (at the link above) is gruesome enough and might be stretching the limits of this, a G-rated blog.  Even though it's a drawing/painting, it's bad enough, but for some reason, this video on YouTube made me laugh a little bit.  

Somehow, an animated execution isn't all that gruesome. 

Peter's Computer


Dying Gasp

I go into my modem diagnostics/configuration page every now and then to clear out the logs;  they add up quickly because my connection goes out at least once a day, almost always at the same time each night.

The first time I looked at the logs it was an education;  I wanted to see if the problem was on my end (it wasn't) so I looked up each event to see what it meant.  I was clearing it out earlier this morning after getting back online after a day without electricity when I saw this entry (highlighted)


"Dying Gasp"?  Good grief.  It didn't take but a few seconds to find out what it is. I guess it's appropriate in that context.