The name of the week

Did you see this NYT article about Diana Nyad, who is attempting (at age 61) to swim the 103 shark-infested miles from Cuba to Florida?

And did you think:

(1) Her name is sort of a palindrome; and

(2) It's also very nomen-omen-y (see Naiad)

?

Doctor doctor

A string of Americans also have very job-specific names, including Dr Leslie Doctor, Dr Thoulton Surgeon and Les Plack - a dentist in San Francisco. —BBC

Ed...itor

I thought of Foucault's essay again when I recently came across a psychological study showing that Americans tend to choose careers whose labels resemble their names. Thus the name Dennis is statistically overrepresented among dentists, and the ranks of geoscientists contain disproportionately high numbers of Georges and Geoffreys. The study ascribed these phenomena to "implicit egotism": the "generally positive feelings" that people have about their own names. I wonder whether some of the Dennises in dentistry school ended up there by a different motivation: the secret wish to bring arbitrary language in tune with physical reality.
—Elif Batuman (in The Chronicle of Higher Education)

(From Rachel.)

I have no idea what I'm talking about

Before the Tiger Woods scandal broke, I had been pondering this nomen et omen: Some golf-club company should market a set of "Tiger Woods"!

There would be a commercial in which Tiger Woods just said his name a few times, a who's-on-firsty thing ("What sorta clubs ya usin'?" "Tiger Woods." "Aw c'mon Tiger, you can tell us..." "Tiger Woods." "Now really...").

Finally the message is understood. Then we see an oldish Brit stroll onto the links.

"Who's that guy?" one of the aforementioned questioners asks.

Close-up of swing—cut to face, grinning.

It's Jeremy Irons!

—END OF COMMERCIAL—

* * *

Another idea: Shut down this blog, and redirect everyone to MAGIC MOLLY.

Disambiguations for Summer 2009

I. At last: A new New-York Ghost! Yes...it is the summer issue...Jen Snow told me she read it on her iPhone. Features a lengthy narrative and some jaw-droppingly great Jing Wei art.

II. From Jenny D—a nice bit of nomen-omening (NYT):

Air-conditioner sales at J. Eis & Sons on the Lower East Side are down almost 50 percent.

“It’s just not that hot,” said Lenny Eis (pronounced ice), the owner.

III. I'm at a library and I just peered around a desk at the room beyond a set of French doors—except it was a mirror, and the dude in the gray shirt was me. It's like an H.P. Lovecraft story!

IV. Disambiguation (did you notice I changed the name of this blog??) is taking a break till late August! "Keep cool."

xoxo,
Gossip Ed

Gone fishing

Nomen-omening, from Publisher's Lunch:

Vivian Chum has joined Prospect Agency as an agent. She is seeking romance, young adult fiction, literature, thrillers, and science fiction, as well as nonfiction projects.

*****

Here's another one, sort of — from the NYT homepage —

Blow: Teen Cocaine Use (clicking on it takes you to this piece by Charles M. Blow).

Where's the beef?

I. Headline of the day: "Beef dispute confronts Rice on Korean visit." —AP
(From Cousin Jane)

II. Unprecedented? Two weeks, two NYT reviews of books by Psychic Envelopes members!

III. Nomen-omening? "Actor Charles Ogle" appears on Weekend Stubble.

IV. Are Tiger Woods and Roger Federer...Ourobori?

We are talking about a powerful, almost violent swing that puts inordinate stress on a left knee that is about to undergo a third operation within five years....Woods is 32, comfortably in a golfer’s prime. It is nonetheless time to acknowledge that the singular rival he has lacked over the past decade has finally emerged. It is himself.

V. Personal Days = menswear forecaster?

Drunken masters

"They wrote the best poetry literally while they were drunk. They are called the drunk immortals of poetry," [Da] Chen said. "They wandered the country, visited one friend and another." The poets would drink and then be challenged to create a perfect line..." —The Beaumont Enterprise

In a nice bit of nomen-omening, the writer of the article is named "Donna Liquori."

UPDATE: I like the name "Enterprise" for a newspaper.