I’ve been thinking of doing this for a while, but conversations at Bertucci’s tonight prompted me to finally post this thread-starter. I’m curious, and I hope others are as well, about the significance of some BMG handles. Many of us of course just use some form of our name, but if you do not I invite you to comment on this thread (without revealing anymore than you want to about yourself) about the origin and reason for your handle. I learned a couple of interesting ones tonight and I hope those people will be among those who comment.
Please share widely!
It is what my Polish grandmothers called me. Correct pronunciation is “yah-shew” with the accent on the first syllable.
…My Polish grandmother called my older brother, who’s first name is Joseph, exactly that.
She called me ‘Petruscz’ (probably not the correct spelling but if you try to sound it out like that you’ll get the point) which she said is the diminutive of my birth name ‘Peter” and when, as a wee lad, I questioned her on the missing second ‘e’ (as so many have questioned me since… =-) she said that it was common to spell it ‘Petr’ in the region of Poland from whence the family came. She did say some Poles insist on ‘Piotr” because ‘Petr’ is also popular in the area that known now as the Czech Republic and nationalist sentiment being what it is… well… (I’ve had people challenge my Polish ancestry on just this point and that’s probably why I feel the need to be prolix in this explanation…) I’ve since learned that the region she described is fairly close to the present Czech-Polish border and not far from where the three borders of Poland, the Czech-Republic and Germany meet. My uncle once tried to determine exactly how many times the valley where the family lived changed hands between the Prussian empire, Czechs, Poland and various local Duchies and fiefdoms. He determined, ultimately, that it was not possible to determine that number. So It’s probable the I’m really some combination of Polish, Czech and German on my fathers side.
Anyways, I’ve been spelling my name ‘Petr’ (not just here, but almost everywhere) since the day, nearly 25 years ago, I realized she wasn’t going to be around forever. Indeed, she died not long after that… I worked with an old sage once who told me, “if the whole world, but one, hates you… as long as that one loves you, you can face it.”
For legal documents that might present a problem if somebody challenges it, I sign “Peter” which is on my license but I’ve so long had the habit of spelling it ‘Petr’, it takes a second to stop and think how to do it…
I was never completely sure, but in my head I always pronounced your handle “Peter”.
I think part of Christopher’s question hinted at why a handle vs. real-name. As I do on any forum, I lurked for a long time before posting to get an idea of the environment. At that time, most posters used handles so that was the way I went.
The three and a half people who actually know me here can attest to the fact that my last name is a toughie (unless you are Polish – it’s actually quite common) so it’s probably better that I’m not using it. 🙂
born this way.
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I first signed up here as JohnT, but I lost the password to that account and couldn’t retrieve it – that was back in the Soapblox days, and the system didn’t email me a recovery password. Since then I’ve changed to my full name with “fka” for “formerly known as”, but that moniker only shows when I comment.
It only shows in the “Recent Comments” list when I comment!
Dr. Don Green is OETKB= Old Enough To Know Better as in “I should be…” or “I am……”
We have met the enemy and he is us…
My handle over at RMG, Simple J. Malarkey, was a character in the Pogo strip that is based on Joe McCarthy. I always get a smile when folks over at RMG use the “Simple” to deride my opinions, not knowing the joke is on them.
Also, didn’t you previously post here under a different name?
…Frank Skeffington on BMG and his coat-holding lackey Festus Garvey over at RMG. My choice of Frank I hope is pretty self evident, a tip of the hat to one of the most infamous Boston political novels, based on one of our most infamous political legends. I lost bet with the late billix when Brown beat Coakley and dropped the handle.
Funny thing about the Festus Garvey handle over at Redmassgroup…I was sometimes asked if I was mocking anti-abortion folks because they thought i was using a play on words for “Fetus Gravy”.
Holding up the banner of reason at RMG, and here too.
One of my favorites and I try to reread it once a year. One of the few instances where the film is just as good as the novel.
highly property-taxed town of Harvard, about 35 miles west of Boston. When I used to work for the state in Boston, a guy in the office used to greet me as “Dave from Havahd,” putting an exaggerated Boston accent on the name of the town, I’m not sure why. Without putting too much additional thought into the matter, I much later decided to use Dave from Hvad as my handle on BMG. Glad to have the opportunity to finally explain that;-)
advocacy org that happened to have positions all associated with D’s. Now I lurk, but when I do come out of hiding, I’m nicer than a lot of you.
(Copied from a 2008 comment) Short version: Sabutai was Genghis Khan’s right-hand man, and actually out-lived him. Sabutai led the flanking action of the conquest of Persia with a 20,000-strong reconnaissance mission. Sabutai then defeated the Russian army, conquering that land. He was revving up for the charge into Europe when Genghis Khan died and he returned to the Mongol homeland. After Genghis’s second son Ogodei became leader, Sabutai wheeled westward again with his huge force, pummeling the scrapings of Europe’s military. He was aimed at Vienna when Ogodei died, and I really don’t think anything could have stopped him.
NOTE: Transliteration of Mongol names is subject to some scholarly heat right now. I use Genghis and Sabutai as they are more familiar to non-specialists, but Chinggis and Subedei probably reflect Mongol pronunciation more faithfully.
I’ve long felt what distinguishes (many) progressives from mere liberals is our theory of power. Is it top down or bottom up? I mean positively, not normatively; not as a hazy ideal, but in actual pragmatic fact.
So: Not so much the Keynesian rejoinder to trickle-down economics as the assertion that fundamental change comes from the grassroots, and that people really do have power if they can act together in creative disciplined ways.
There’s more to it than that, trickling up is necessary but not sufficient. (Compare, say, the civil-rights movement with Occupy.) But my handles says where I stand; where do you?
My bloggy/podcasty name has been massmarrier for 11 years or so. It made perfect sense when I started the marriage-equality blog Marry in Massachusetts…a little more so as I began to solemnize marriages via the MA petition-the-governor one-day designation ritual.
I never hid my identity in various profiles. Anyone who cares to click can ID me as Mike Ball. That’s on three blogs, the Left Ahead podcast and of course at BMG.
From time to time, I think the same-sex-marriage cycle is nearly complete. Then I should stop what is now the occasional post the Marry in Massachusetts and often politics beyond the original topic. If I do, then do I adopt a new handle? Probably not. Not only am I used to it, but it’s on my MOO card in my email address and in many people’s address books.
And I’ve been told Conway derives from the Gaelic for “head bashers”, though the only combat I engage in is the virtual kind. Lot of growth on this site, and I look forward to supporting it this year and watching it flourish.
When are you and your fiancee/wife going to move back to the Boston area so I can work on getting you elected to some city-wide or state-wide post? We need more eminently reasonable young head-bashers around here.
My handle is my favorite food from my favorite state, New Mexico. (Massachusetts is a close second. New Mexico wins for the food and climate.)
Always looking for interesting job offers, they don’t even need to be political, just need to be based back in MA. Any and all leads appreciated. The current plan is for her to finish up her nursing program out here in IL, get hired out there in MA, and give me the flexibility to look for work locally.
I really enjoyed teaching my college writing course for high schoolers at a tutoring center out here, I figure it’s way more enjoyable than the office work that currently pays the bills and is a way to get into some form of public service. Of course, I’d love to run for office someday, though so far attempts to get paid policy or political work in either state have been a cycle of close but no cigar. And then that is contingent on where I can afford to live. Cambridge is where I grew up, but I’m open to anywhere in the area at this point. I appreciate the warm words of encouragement!
…is your own against a keyboard or monitor when someone writes something stupid on BMG, though hopefully not yours truly too often:)
That was back when I used to hate read RMG. There are gradations of liberality here, but most folks remain reality based. You think we were mad Baker won-you shoulda seen how they felt.
…that RMGers were more upset than we were when Baker won?
Eno knew who buttered his bread, but a lot of them were up in arms that Weld endorsed a host of Democrats for the legislature and Baker didn’t lift a finger for the downballot races. Some of the more vocally pro-life anti-gay folks said they would’ve voted for Lively had Coakley not been on the ballot. And they immediately trashed Baker for picking some Democrats and non-partisan folks for his cabinet. Fortunately for him, the right wing blogosphere in MA is far less relevant to outcomes.
Apparently Baker had the gall to appoint a Democrat to replace an elected Democrat down in Bristol county.
Also RMG is vocally anti-Olympics for what it’s worth, and seems to feel Baker is. So it’s definitely a non-partisan issue in my book either way.
Red Mass is not partisan in the same way BMG is. When push comes to shove, even the most progressive BMGer shuts up and votes for the Democrat. Hence the DINO complaints about people they actually voted for.
The libertarian and so-cons genuinely DON’T vote for a Republian who is insufficiently pure. The mantra is – I’d rather LOSE with the RIGHT candidate….
When you ask them if they’re happier with a radical leftist violating all of their cherished goals, they just answer that it’s all just part of Agenda 21 and will just bring about the True Conservative Revival that much sooner.
It drives me bonkers when these folks are called Republicans because they truly are not.
You seem to spend more time with us than with them, now I think I came upon the reason. Either way, happy to have a historic member of parliament comment here!
When I started blogging, I took the pen name of William Cobbett, which was Peter Porcupine. Cobbett was a revolutionary-era newspaper publisher. He grew up dirt poor on a farm, and became soldier who was drummed out of his regiment for reporting fraud by the officers. He fled to France to avoid arrest and witnessed the Terror, and came to Philadelphia and started a paper. In its day, it had the largest circulation in the colonies/states. He loathed Jefferson who was a Francophile (he had SEEN the French egalitie), and was a key figure in the passage of the Alien and Sedition Act, which was passed to either shut him up or make him (among others) return to England. He did return there, and came up with the idea of transcribing Parliamentary debates and publishing them, the first such record of debate. He sold the concept to Hansard (which is still the name of the debate record there) and ran for Parliament himself, elected several times. He died bankrupt. (He is a main character in William Safire’s excellent book about the newspapers of the era, “Scandalmonger”)
He was renowned for his contrarianism, his sarcasm, and his biting descriptions of politicians and politics. What’s not to like?
Such things don’t, per se, automagically grant renown… jus’ saying.
I bought a house which has a name “The Spruce Lodge”.
On my mother’s suggestion I named my boat the “Sea Lodge”.
I am the Lodger.