What's In a Middle Name?
My friend Dave Budin, the musician and writer whom I've mentioned briefly in the past, has come up with an interesting new way to support his favorite presidential candidate. In an email, he explained how the site came to be. "Last week I sent a message jokingly suggesting that we all change our middle names to Hussein until November 4. I mean, I thought I was joking. Then a lot of people e-mailed back and said they were actually doing that -- and they were forwarding my message to their friends, etc...Visit the site -- and, if you want to, sign in. And pass it along to anyone else you know who might be interested. It's not so much that it's pro-Obama (which it obviously is), as it is -- to quote Mark Mothersbaugh's description of his group Devo -- 'anti-stupidity.'" This Sunday, he and his brother will be participating in The Audacity of Votes: A Concert for Change, at the uniquely wonderful Beachland Ballroom, owned and operated by another old journalism comrade, the saintly one, Cindy Barber (scroll down to review all our past mentions of Cindy).
A special welcome to any new visitors/readers from the COSE small business conference. I'll post some wrap-up comments about that in the next couple of days. I met some extraordinary folks on the first day, and will no doubt meet some more on the second and final day of the conference. If you missed it, no problem. As soon as they're available, we'll post a link to the podcasts of all the sessions, including ours. We were tickled (and humbled) by the standing-room-only crowd and the quality of the questions and audience participation. It was just a wonderful event. Thanks, COSE.
5 Comments:
John, I'd been waiting to blog about my new name until the week before Election Day, which is why I didn't join in the discussion when you posted something on the topic here.
Here's the link: http://www.tjsullivanla.com/2008/10/whats-in-name-like-efthemios.html
Cheers
That made me laugh, and how did I miss you adding that middle name to your blog?? I also missed the original NYT piece that no doubt gave Dave B. the idea (naughty boy for not acknowledging that provenance). But the Paul Tsongas middle name really made me laugh. Can you imagine what the R's would have done with that if he'd ever won the nomination?
Jack Kemp Jr.'s middle name is "Freedom."
OK, it's actually "French," but he surely changed it after the whole Freedom Fries fiasco, doncha think?
And, in my humble opinion, the coolest middle name in presidential history is still "Fitzgerald."
JFK had it all.
I never could quite decide if Kemp was merely a kook or downright nuts. I recall once reading that he would routinely call out to his kids as they left the house, "be a winner!" You can imagine the eye rolls that would have prompted.
I agree Fitzgerald is the best presidential middle name. But Delano has to be a close second, no?
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