Nickname stories
I wanna hear where your nicknames came from. It's too bad we can't just make up our own nicknames, but it just don't work that way.
'member that Seinfeld where Costanza wanted to be called T-bone so he wouldn't have to go by George anymore? They ended up calling him Koko The Monkey.
I'll fess up: my nickname came from a drinking binge. We started this thing at my school called beer golf, which basically meant that we'd visit 18 bars in Walla Walla & drink at least a 9oz glass of beer in each bar (known locally as a "schooner"...this is an important detail...remember this word). These are the hourglass-shaped glasses they give you with a pitcher. We travel in a couple of cars and carry a coaster with us to keep track of our drinks (a scorecard if you will). We keep a tight schedule, hitting all 18 in 6 hours. 20 minutes per bar with driving time included is a tough schedule to keep, but part of the fun is getting in & out quickly..."time to go! everyone in the car!"
The last bar we hit is Barnaby's Pub, where I work as a bartender at the time. I'm hammered. I somehow get myself onto a stool next to some of my regular customers and proudly declare "I'VE HAD 34 SCROONERS OF BEER!" My night ends shortly after.
Of course I don't remember saying this until the next time I show up for work, and the customers start tearing into me: "hey scrooner! hey, get me a scrooner, scrooner!" That nickname stuck for quite a while...when I visited last year, after having left some 5 years ago, a few customers hollered out "hey scrooner!" but couldn't remember my first name. So I guess that's what nicknames are good for.
'member that Seinfeld where Costanza wanted to be called T-bone so he wouldn't have to go by George anymore? They ended up calling him Koko The Monkey.
I'll fess up: my nickname came from a drinking binge. We started this thing at my school called beer golf, which basically meant that we'd visit 18 bars in Walla Walla & drink at least a 9oz glass of beer in each bar (known locally as a "schooner"...this is an important detail...remember this word). These are the hourglass-shaped glasses they give you with a pitcher. We travel in a couple of cars and carry a coaster with us to keep track of our drinks (a scorecard if you will). We keep a tight schedule, hitting all 18 in 6 hours. 20 minutes per bar with driving time included is a tough schedule to keep, but part of the fun is getting in & out quickly..."time to go! everyone in the car!"
The last bar we hit is Barnaby's Pub, where I work as a bartender at the time. I'm hammered. I somehow get myself onto a stool next to some of my regular customers and proudly declare "I'VE HAD 34 SCROONERS OF BEER!" My night ends shortly after.
Of course I don't remember saying this until the next time I show up for work, and the customers start tearing into me: "hey scrooner! hey, get me a scrooner, scrooner!" That nickname stuck for quite a while...when I visited last year, after having left some 5 years ago, a few customers hollered out "hey scrooner!" but couldn't remember my first name. So I guess that's what nicknames are good for.
posted by scrooner at 9:52 AM
16 Comments:
I wanna hear where your nicknames came from. It's too bad we can't just make up our own nicknames, but it just don't work that way.
I know this is a dig against me, but "The Cruise" is not supposed to be me.
The Cruise was just a character I made up for the message board that was meant to be perpetually enraged at the world. He started to become more popular than me, and now the real Kyle has to live up to the lie he created. It's tearing me apart inside.
Kyle once gave me shit about having a variety of nicknames...but I really have way fewer than some. L-boogie orginated in college -- something about shaking my booty on the dance floor...me?!?! Never ;) Then there is LB -- it's really just my initials. And then there is the little know "Barb." I was Barb for 2 years playing on the UO women's team b/c Tracey Satterfield didn't remember my name -- needless to say it stuck. Every once and a while at Potlach or other tourneys I run into UOers who give a shout out to Barb.
Some people are under the impression that I gave myself the nickname "snake." This is not true. I will now tell you this little known story of it's origin.
Up until college I never had a nickname. No one even came close to calling me "Ash" or "hashpipe." This continued through the first couple of years of school; and then it happened. It was on an ultimate trip, if I recall, that we were sitting around watching movies on t.v. We started watching a movie about a young man who was a surfer turned hockey player: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106233/
it changed my life. At this time, I was the only non-white person on the ultimate team (shocking.)
There was also only one non-white character in the entire airborne movie. his name? you guessed it: snake. Ever since there is one guy from my ultimate team that year that calls me Snake.
so a couple years ago, when someone was being introduced to me, I said "Hi, my name is snake."
All this aside, I'm a firm believer that you can give yourself nicknames, especially if you are using them to portray an alter-ego.
tell me what you want me to call you, and I will.
-ashish
So, people who don't know me from volleyball circles always assume that the nickname "tree" was born because...you guessed it, I'm a wicked-TALL chick. Get it? Trees are tall TOO!
But that's not it. On the college v-ball team, where I wasn't considered that tall, nobody could spit out Te-re-sa while playing. The name got shortened to Tre-sa and by October of my freshman year, I was Tree.
I thought when I left Park City for Portland that the nickname would die, but it only took Paige hearing a Utah friend call me "Tree" for the entire ultimate community to pick up on it.
I've had a quite a few nicknames since college, mostly borne of athletics: TMc, Bambi, Sunshine, McBabe, Stupid Hussy, Mon-tree-tree, the list goes on.
But Tree is the one that sticks.
And that's ok 'cause I like trees.
Airborne was filmed in Cincinnati.
There's a scene where they walk out of the bathroom at school and my old friend Karen Blandford gives them a dirty look. I'm glad that movie stuck with you.
(but the movie is fake, nobody plays rollerhockey in Ohio)
And Ash, I've always just called you "Buddha" behind your back. I can never remember what foreign land you're from, and they all run together.
Ash is forgetting some of the more recent ones...my favorite of which is shi-shi-Monkey. I think Peter gave him that name. And Ashitron thanks to T-Unit.....and let's not forget the Dragon.
Ash is a leader in nicknames. He should feel loved. Speaking of nicknames, after watching roller derby, I think I need a bad ass roller derby style nickname. It seems like they have something to do with sex or alcohol and being bad ass.
A lot of nicknames get thrown my way. But they usually only stick with a couple of people. Kyle and Danimal are the only two people who call me Suds. It comes from the time Brunt and Kyle rubbed their bare butts together in my presence and I said, “Ew. Gross.” My preference for hygiene and non-grossness landed me Suds.
There’s also Stuffy, which is short for Stuffypants (short for Stephie), Crash, Birdie, and most recently, Little Krissy.
Crash refers to my driving record circa 16 years of age, Bird, to my eating habits in college (apparently, a bird can eat like five times its weight daily), and the last refers to my resemblance to the character in Pecker who eats raw sugar out of the bag.
I’ve also been referred to as The Kraut, Princess, Pho, Lee, and Liesl.
I got the honor of the Danimal and Awkward Comment Guy (ACG) from my AmeriCorps days with the Northwest Service Academy here in Portland back in 2000. Dave Shapiro (on my AmeriCorps team) was responsible for Danimal, and the rest of my team just dubbed me, Awkward Comment Guy. The Cruise would just refer to Dave as the Hippie Jew if he knoew him, but I digress. I guess ACG can be attributed to the fact that I'm like one of those superheroes that always explains their thoughts out loud on how they are going to trap the villain or get out of a jam, except that I verbalize other thoughts that I should keep to my self, lack of self sensorship if you will, like a tree that looks like a cooter, nu nu, vagina, whatever..... you get the point. Danimal came to life because of my behavior, whatever that means. Back when I was in my skinny, good looking days of my mid twenties and learning the game of ultimate at not so good pick up, Dylan had caught hold of my nicknames and was pretty much responsible for getting those started in the ultimate community. So now I'm currently a 31 year old man nicknamed after a child's drink snack and a trademark of Nike outdoor gear.
I like Trees, too!
mindo... another concoction from tracey satterfield, I think she actually started it as 'mindo with the indo' - makes sense. right. and to be fair to a few friends, it's actually a nickname from my past too. I must say though, that I'm partial to the new spelling that meghan gave me this season.
most of my nicknames have always used min or mind with various endings, think like the copy guy on SNL. but, a few years ago in vermont I had a few folks who called me 'mork.' since the TV reference isn't as common as it was when I was 6, it wasn't so annoying.
Kyle gave me my knickname from Fast Times at Ridgemont high, and I was told never to argue with him, so it stuck. Brent one-upped it to Dabone, and since then Dylan has reformed that into just Boner, from Growing Pains. I don't want to know what the next iteration might be.
Other nicknames from ultimate days are the Altoid, Shaq, and just plain O'Neil.
Ma Bell gave me my nickname. It's really the first one I've had that stuck with pretty much everyone. It doesn't have a great story behind it. Instead of G-Unit (that crazy group of rappers this is no more) he decided to make it T-Unit.
I had two nicknames in college. A couple of guys on my team called me S.T. Short for Super Tony. That stemmed from the "S" on the homemade visor that I wore. It was a free Specialized hat that I got and I still wear every now and again. It's had a few tosses into ground and kickings. The other nickname I had was firecracker. Easy to understand if you've every played a really tight, emotional frisbee game with me. I even have footage of me blowing up at someone for a stupid call.
T-Unit is also sometimes part of the 2-person "midgetron" with a certain other hot short guy that I know.
When I am part of Midgetron, my name is changed to T-Unitron. And just to clarify, TJ was the one who made up the names, not me.
If it's a two-part monster, isn't it more of a Master Blaster kinda thing?
"Who run Bartertown?"
Master Blaster
"Say Louder."
Master BlasterMaster BlasterMaster Blaster
"Lift Embargo."
(but the movie is fake, nobody plays rollerhockey in Ohio)
Yes...movie is fake, but because nobody is interested in hokey on a large scale...but we, you and I, played quite a bit of roller hockey for a year or so in high school.
My nickname is AJPARRILLO...not much of a nickname, initials plus last name. First, you need friends, especially drinking buds, for the generation of a nicknames. I have had them in the past, but these don't transcend to other social groups so I don't use them. Don't ask new friends to call you by a name that has nothing to do with them, silly. So, not having current friends and not being in the bar lifestyle, I have no nickname. Further, it is a consious decision to use my real name for everything, even for what I post on blogs, because I want peeps to know what badass muther fucker said it. Kind of like when Birdflag's mother would not let him sign his art Guido and made him use his real name.
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