Not So Fast

HE SHOULD HAVE RELEASED IT SOONER! IT IS A FAKE!

BHO I was born in the British colony of Kenya = Barry is a Secret Brit.

On a related topic, can someone explain to me the attraction of giving a son the exact same name as his father? I have never understood it and it transcends cultures and nationalities. Inheritance and marking your biological territory seems to be historic reasons for it, but in this day and age?

I have a friend who is Cyrus John —- the 13th. Not some pansy III: XIII. With that kind of pressure, how do you not name a son Cyrus John —- XIV?

Was Obama’s mother not also a student at the time?

@mellbell: In 1961? Puh-lease. Wife and mother was a full time job back then.

@mellbell: I think you’re right, but it could still be a relic of the early 60s. “Student” as a profession for a young mother may not have cut it back then.

@Nabisco: No, I’m serious. They met in college. He might’ve been there for grad school. Anyway, her occupation was student as much as his was.

@SanFranLefty: WASPs love that shit, mostly because we haven’t an original thought in our heads. If you yelled “Hey, Ben!” at one of our family dinners, 10 people would answer. Hell, I had female cousins who used Roman numerals to differentiate them from grandma. The family was struck dumb with horror when a cousin (who was himself a III) let his trailer-trash wife name their daughter for a character in a soap opera. His mother could barely drag herself from her bed of Valium pain to attend the christening.

@Mistress Cynica: My favorite name from history: the Apache warrior Mangas Coloradas, so named by the Mexicans he fought in SW New Mexico/SE Arizona because his arms ran red with the blood of his enemies. One of his followers was a kid named Goyahkla (“He Who Yawns”), later known as Geronimo, who is a hero of mine.

@redmanlaw: See, that is so cool. My name means “My grandmother was paying for everything.” Most WASP name meanings are variations on that: “My aunt is rich and childless”; “My initials match those on the good silver.”

@redmanlaw: That should so be an opera. It’s the only form that would serve such a huge story. Thrilling.

@Mistress Cynica: There’s a wonderful Feydeau farce the plot of which hinges on the woman’s need to marry a man with the same initials as her late husband so she doesn’t have to have all the linen re-embroidered. My name is Gaelic for Pass the Vodka.

@Mistress Cynica: My name means “How do we leach all the Italian and Swedish out of it?”

It also means I’m a Senator from Utah.

@Benedick HRH KFC: You think it was an accident my mother’s first and second husbands had the same last initial? Everything was already monogrammed.

@Mistress Cynica: Grandma married twice. Both hubbies shared two out of three names. Dad, who was Junior the First, remained Junior the Second. I don’t think he’s ever gotten over it.

Meanwhile, back to the stumpy-fingered vulgarian: China-bashing Trump’s line of suits made in….wait for it…. China.

@nojo: My great-grandma married her deceased husband’s twin brother. It was considered a scandal. My grandfather didn’t discover until much later that his father was actually his uncle.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: Welcome to family life.

@SanFranLefty: Well, I’m shocked. It’s all such fucking crap I would have thought it was made in Mississippi.

But what we need to know is who makes his own suits. Because they are outstandingly awful. As is the thing on his head. What is it? Does he feed it? Does it have a name?

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut: I actually didn’t know my grandpa was my step-grandpa until my late teens. Nobody kept it from me or anything, nor did I think to ask. It came up one day when I observed a strong family resemblance between Dad and Grandpa that turned out not to be the case.

@karen marie: Whoa. How Battlestar.

@karen marie has her eyes tight shut:
Well, I didn’t realize my paternal Gramps was a player until my 20s when I finally figured out why I had so many “first” cousins, er, half cousins.

My dad had 6 full siblings from second marriage, 2 half siblings from first marriage plus 4 illegit half siblings from “companions” + others we don’t know about.

My gramps was married at least 3 times that my dad is willing to tell me about.

@nojo: You were like, what, astride his knee? And he was like bouncing you?

@ManchuCandidate: You win.

@Benedick HRH KFC: Hey, hey, hey — that’s the man who taught me chess.

And he was sitting next to Dad at the table one afternoon when I saw the resemblance. When I mentioned it that evening, I was politely corrected.