• Stickin’ like spaghetti •
[1½ MIN READ]
Does nicknames for some but not the rest seem exclusive? I think so.
Some of the nicknames among the Growlers have developed for practical reasons. These-here Cerebruns have featured The Daves and The Kates and the distinctions they’ve necessitated, including the most recent. The Ruminations of SRC has featured entire discussions of the process of developing “trailtags” (iCandybyWangC, ShawmontRunningClub.com). That Saturday morning club itself has necessitated variations because of more than one Scott; hence, our Scott became Scottsy (‘Scott C’).
My own distinct ways of thinking have generated a few others, informally. Consider our Adams that then necessitated Jenkintown and Terrapin distinctions, that then morphed into Jenk and Terp Adams, and that then moshed into J’Adam and T’Adam (the last primarily for writing purposes).
But nicknames don’t have to come to be because more than one person has the same first name. For a little while these-here Cerebruns featured the distinctions Jim-variation and Jason-variation, because the similarity of their humor elicited the moniker Variations o’J&J (It made sense to me.).
So, I’m formalizing 4 nicknames that I’ve conceived, just because. I hereby dub thees Jay-var, Jim-var, Sam-K-Can, and Scottsy-Totsy. To speak to Sam’s nickname, SRC’s Ying became Ying1 because of the similarity to Dr. Seuss’s Thing1 and Thing 2. (And now the club is ready for its second Ying, natch.) Sam-I-Am is too obvious, though. That led to Sam-K-Am — because he’s Korean-descent, duh. But he’s not Korean-American. He’s Canadian. Hence, Sam-K-Can. It’s brilliant. I think so.
What happens if no one likes these new nicknames? Well, I’ll either be publishing a correction at some point, or everyone will ignore me and not use them. But, as the club anchor and the crew’s favorite wack-a-mole-job, I feel like I get to do certain things. When I’ve moved on to other things, y’all can go back to using real names. But someday you’ll also feel compelled to coin a name or two that start sticking and all y’all’ll think of me.
For the rest of you who still don’t have nicknames: Just you wait.
-CtCloser (Calvinthe), “Negative split or positive splat” #dothedue
FINE PRINT ¶Text and photos (unless otherwise stated): Calvin Wang (Wäng), CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. ¶Cross-posted: (1) Facebook JRC Growlers Group Run (2025’10’29’W Run Message), (2) GGR email list, (3) Cerebruns by CtCloser. ¶This website posting: Cerebrun with added caption.
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