Long Names

My pen name (Nom de Plume) is Kay Hemlock Brown.  I'm comfortable with it, because, well, basically both Kay and Brown are short, single-syllable names.

Of course, the whole thing is a fiction, which you ought to know.  When I was ready to self- publish the first story (the second part of Jane,) I decided to use a pen-name, just so I wouldn't be identified by my students.  (Luckily, they don't read anything, let alone sapphic romance, so I'm safe.  They didn't even read the syllabus, or even the questions on their exams!!)

Well, I'm noticing that authors of fantasy fiction are increasingly giving their heroines long, multiple names.  I don't get out much; I actually never did, so I don't have my ear to the ground.  It must mean something that they're doing this; it can't be a coincidence that an entire generation of authors—especially female ones—are giving their original characters (OC's, as they're called) long, fancy names.  The most recent one is Isabella Gabriella Angelina Aurora Renata Anastasia Fielding-Horne.

Her initials would be IGAARA F-H.  That's 26 syllables.  (Am I pronouncing the names correctly?)  In really big families, the mothers gave the infant names from many relatives, to make sure that the various namesake aunts would be favorably disposed towards the new family member.  Long names were selected to impress.  And hyphenated family names (like Fielding-Horne) to please two branches of the family; possibly the two parental lines.

My pen-name, in the nature of pen-names, wasn't chosen to please anybody.  In fact, Brown was chosen because of its very dullness, and Kay because you couldn't deduce anything from it.  (Did you know why Max Eastman chose to name his photographic process Kodak?  It was because he liked the letter k!! No better reason, in my book.)

Jane was chosen also for its simplicity or dullness, Maia was an abbreviation of Mayaserana, which was supposed to be the name of a princess.  So was Helen borrowed from the name of a princess.  Many girl- children were given names from princesses; we can assume that numerous little girls born in the fifties decade were given the name  Elizabeth, because people the world over loved Princess Elizabeth, and later, Queen Elizabeth.

Well, off I go to continue reading my story.

K

John Lennon's Birthday

John Lennon's birthday was October 9, 1940.

All four of the Beatles were talented musicians—I don't know enough about the matter to tell you about their musicianship in greater detail—but I think Paul might have been the greater performer, and John might have been the more gifted from a literary point of view. 

Once John meet Yoko Ono (whom he married), she introduced him to so much thinking, there wasn't room in his head for much more that Feminism, Liberalism, Pacifism, social commentary, and Social engagement, generally.  Of course, the popular media lumped all that together into Socialist Politics, and blamed Yoko for putting all that in his head. 

But now, many of us think like John Lennon; and MAGA hates it, and labels us Woke, but it just means that we're very aware of how Big Business and conservative politicians manipulate everything to get money out of the hands of ordinary people, and into their (businessmen's) own pockets.  And in the past, men have made sure that they controlled the family money.  That's still the way it is among conservatives.  The women are kept busy being responsible for the kids (and shooting dogs), while the guys handle the money. 

John Lennon was shot on December 8, 1980; the shooter is still alive, but in prison.  But I'm glad John Lennon was alive, even for 40 short years.  He greatly influenced how I view society.  He was ahead of his time; we have to thank Yoko Ono.

Kay Hemlock Brown

It's A Boy!

Today my friend and I took a walk around the block, and Lo!  There was a handsome Dalmatian watching us with considerable interest, from behind a fence!  It was roughly the right longitude from where I saw the Dalmatian gambolling in its yard. 

Well, I was wrong; it was a male!

But I think I'm right, it was a very young dog. 

He extended several woofs in recognition of our curiosity, after which—out of politeness—we continued our way!

Kay

I Love this Artwork!

 This popped up in my Fb feed:

Miscellany

Phone Charging

I'm reading that charging your phone to 100% is bad for the phone!  So stop at about 80%.  The newest phones stop anyway (it's annoying, but in our best interests), so don't be upset. 

WNBA Playoffs

Well!  The Indiana High Temperatures have won three games, so they're still in the playoffs.  Go, girls!!

Well, that's all I've got for the moment.  Over the course of the day, I'll add on to the post as ideas come to me.

Added 9-23:  Jimmy Kimmel is gonna be back tonight.  As  Bob Dylan says, it's not just about Jimmy.  He's still furious at the media companies for playing games with the First Amendment.

Meanwhile, the Sinclair media company is still not allowing Jimmy on the air over their TV stations, for saying something about Kirk.  They say that if Jimmy makes a huge contribution to some charity, all will be forgiven!  That's not the way forgiveness works, kids.

All sorts of amusing CDC declarations are being made.  The population of MAGA people is going to be severely depleted due to preventable childhood deseases over the next decade or so.  (But the survivors will be stronger, due to Darwin.)

Trump spoke at the UNO.  (Some people were not happy.)  Hopefully, by this time international diplomats know that Trump does not speak for all of us.

Kay

Truth and Policy

What is most disturbing about current affairs is: what is reported in the media. 

Not just news; the so-called facts about anything are now up for dispute.  Matters about the character of various people in the news is a open to interpretation or judgment as they have always been.  But now, what things are healthy to eat; what vaccines are good to get; whether it is good to get into college; whether what someone said falls under the First Amendment protection; whether the President can fire a given government official: all of these matters are decided on by the White House.

I think that many of the decisions of the administration to change existing ways of doing things are decided based on whether they will annoy the 'Elites'.  I just don't express an opinion about the value of anything simply because there's a small chance that someone in the Government might happen to read it, and assume that other 'Elites' may have the same values.  Not that I'm an Elite in the conventional sense; I'm just a nobody.  But I get mad about spelling errors, and that could be taken as an indicator. 

Kay

Moon Goddess!

Katie Moon won the pole vault championship in Tokyo.  (Was it this summer?  I don't know.)

She is so happy in these pictures!

KATIE MOON, my goddess!