I have realized that, since no one reads this blog (sorry! if you are reading this you must not exist), we have a tremendous amount of freedom in what we post.("We" because I am not the only one who's posted here. Fun Quiz! See if you can find the other contributor!)
And having just posted someone else's humor (but don't miss the serious post that preceded it on science and faith!), I might as well include a quick note certain to stimulate comments among you nonexistent readers.
It's an established psychological phenomenon that people tend to choose professions that match their names, at least when the names have natural associations.
So, for instance, my wife once visited a hand specialist named Dr. Mitten. And my friend the psychology professor says one of the better researchers in his field is Sam Gosling, who does work on animal personalities.
Today I ran across a good one: The plenary speaker at a stewardship conference my sister's attending this summer, The Rev. Bob Honeychurch.
Gotta love it! His fate was sealed. Sad only that he's an Episcalopian rather than a televangelist.
He looks like a pastor, too.
I need to rename my son "Christopher Christian Faithful Collins." Might ensure his continued belief.
What are the best name-profession pairings you've found? Discuss.
[Btw, the photo's not Honeychurch, but rather the Rev. Dudley Tyng.]
7 comments:
Cogito, ergo sum NOT?
I have no idea what a Collins does. My eye doctor is Dr. Smiley, but he really should have been my dentist. We did have a doc in the hospital over here whose name really was Dr. Doctor.
A genealogy site tells me Collins means "son of Colin", and Colin is a "pet name" for Nicholas.
Snore.
The OED gives two definitions for Collins:
1. An alcoholic drink, of which "Tom" is just one. There is also the Rum Collins and the John Collins, and perhaps others.
2. "A letter of thanks for entertainment or hospitality, sent by a departed guest; a ‘bread-and-butter’ letter."
The second def. is amplified by the following sample quotation, from W. Raleigh, in 1926:
This is only a Collins, and a Collins should not wade into deep places. It should be loving but neat.
Words to live by.
Dr. Doctor--wow! That's surely as good as it gets!
A woman at St. Pat's married Mr. Pepper and then got her doctorate, but that's not quite the same thing. Nor is my colleague here at the lab, Suxing Hu, who is thus Dr. Hu. Sounds better than it reads.
Or, hey--my good friend from Japan, whose first name is Chika, and who grew up to study and become fluent in Spanish, and even live for a time in Mexico. I bet her name confused them no end.
Tim didn't you have a physics professor named Bunny for a while? I thought that was a great pairing, but more for the disconnect than the connection.
I was baptized by "Fr. Hate". The story goes that I cried and howeled during the baptism... and a few months later he ran away with his mistress. I always figured kids were good judges of character. :-)
I have not visited the blog in ages! I just had to contribute that we recently received a flyer in our mailbox for Dental services from Dr. Hurt. Ouch.
In my elementary school the strings teacher was Mr. Sharp and the woodwinds teacher was Mr. Reed. (Mr. Reed also taught brass and percussion.)
Brian--I love it! Those are truly perfect. Their fates were sealed from birth.
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