An Interlude
Ducks, Snowplows, and other things worth sharing
I have been soaking up the last few weeks of summer with my kids, which has been good for the soul but bad for my keyboard, which is collecting a thin but even layer of dust. Although I am starting to get the essay-writing itch again, I’m not quite ready to release my clutches on summer break just yet. But I have been seeing bits of names and naming practices all around me, which I want to share.
After the mouse-naming debacle, we took our kids to an arcade, where they spent their time and money at a duck claw machine. They won 28 ducks and planned to display them on the wall outside their bathroom. Naturally, they named them all.
They have since won 22 more and are waiting for more shelves. My friend Kristie saw an article in her town’s newspaper asking for people to name four of the town’s snowplows. Naturally, she thought of me and sent the article my way. While only residents can vote on the name, suggestions are open to anyone, so if you feel like naming a snowplow, you can do so here anytime before August 23, 4 pm EST. Some of my favorite suggestions thus far are Snowbi-Wan Kenobi, Snowprah Winfrey, and Snow Way Jose.
Two writers I admire recently posted about names/naming in their Substacks. I love it when others discuss a topic I spend too much time thinking and caring about. Maggie Smith talked about names and naming in poetry, while Austin Kleon talked about titling artwork. Titles, after all, are just names we give our art.
I may have wished my name was Sara for a brief period, but shortly after I wrote that piece, I was with a group of friends at a lakehouse when my friend Sarah shared that she hated her name growing up because it was so common. This sparked a larger name discussion among the group, which included my post on nicknames. One of the guys we were with told us his name, Chip, was really a nickname but one which he had gone by his entire life. Sarah, who has known him for 20 years, only recently learned Chip wasn’t his real name. Two of Chip’s three kids go by nicknames instead of their birth names, and apparently, most of their friends from the East Coast go by nicknames. I did not know, but nicknames are a thing on the East Coast. One of the reasons I love the topic of names is that it sparks these hour-long conversations frequently.
