Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Big Red

Say "Hello Wynonna."  Come on, all together now:  "Hello Wynonna!"
        Meanwhile, I just Googled Ms. Judd to verify the spelling of her first name, and found a rather interesting website:  http://www.famousfolk.com/real/names-j/jon.shtml
       As someone who has toyed with changing my name several times in the past (I have gone by Anne-Marie Hildebrandt, Anne-Marie Hildebrandt-Claus, Anne-Marie Claus, Anne-Marie O'Connor and, you guessed it, Rowan!) but was never quite able to make the transition, even when married, I find fascinating the occasionally bizarre things entertainers have changed their names to, and of course, from.  How about the scholar Benjamin Jowett who changed his name to Benjamin Jowett?  OK, obviously there's an issue there.  James Earl Jones was once Todd Jones.  I suppose James Earl does have a bit more of a ring to it.  But what I find most mystifying are examples such as actress Carolyn Jones who left behind the name of Carolyn Baker.  Now since when is Jones such an attractive, desirable name?  You know, those flashy Jones'!  MUCH better than Baker OBVIOUSLY.
       I could go on for too long about this; I love names.  But I must comment on two more.  One is talk show host Janina Stronski who changed her name to Jenny Jones.  Jenny Jones!  I can't even say it- the absurdity!  If you could change your name to anything in the world (and of course, you can) is THAT would you would choose?  And the last is Spike Jonze who was, most amusingly, Adam Spiegel.  I'll keep my mouth shut on that one too, although it does remind me of a most amusing blog I was introduced to last week at http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com.  Check it out for a good laugh!
        
Speaking of names, this afternoon our yard was invaded by a big, friendly Golden Retriever.  My boys have been in heaven, GLUED to him, which is actually kind of nice.  But my youngest was particularly disturbed about the lack of a collar; how would we know what to call the dog?  So not three minutes ago I hear the two of them running around outside calling "Hey Carlos!  Come here Carlos!"  OK, so I think it's cute they came up with a name to call the dog, but Carlos??  The randomness is overwhelming!
        So now why Wynonna (whose original name, btw, was Christine)?  Well, it's my hair.  I visited my beloved hairdresser today and made the questionable move of telling him I wanted "eye-popping" hair.  Now I didn't know what I meant by that, but he took it to mean a drastic change of color, so... here I am.  
I have never strayed far from the honey brown hair I've had since teenage-hood (before that 
it was just plain brown) so seeing myself in that chair today with a bright red halo was a bit of a shock.
  I will get used to it, I'm sure...  yeah...  well, you tell me.  What do you think??  Yes, the curls were not my idea.  As I was saying, "Hello Wynonna!"  
        OK- just one more thing.  Now my boys and I are occasionally obsessed with the Pirates of the Caribbean online multi-player game.  We each have our own pirate (mine is really hot, if I do say so myself) who fights Navy and sails the seas and plunders any non-pirate it can find.  But I just discovered a moment ago a bizarre new interest which my 4-year-old has adopted.  Apparently, when he is playing alone, HIS pirate gets tattoos.  Nate Squidskull the pirate has at least three so far that I know of:  a huge anchor on his chest, a skull tattooed on his FACE, and, I just found out, a key on his left arm.  What, may I ask, does this mean about my child??