but i was searching my gmail for a contact from a while back and that list popped up from when i sent it out a year and a half ago to a few concerned people. anyway, it’s got me thinking about the back story now. allow me to induldge…

my friend heather out in california trapped a gigantor spider under a glass cup and needed a name for it, and i had just recently seen the hobo-list (by john hodgman) on williamsboard (back when i liked posting on messageboards). so, i decided to make up names (the capslock ones at the end) for her new family member after a unknown number of glasses o’ wine. anywhooo…the thing that really made me notice john’s list to begin with were the first three entries:

“1. Stewbuilder Dennis
2. Cholly the Yegg
3. Holden the Expert Dreamtwister”

now, i’m a huge cormac mccarthy fan, and these first three are dead-to-rights and sly references to cormac’s work. specifically suttree and blood meridian. in the novel suttree, the many characters sut encounters all have very offbeat nicknames (many of which are comprised of compound words), such as: boneyard, hoghead, j-bone, mother she, tarzan quinn, oceanfrog, the citymouse, weird leonard, big red callahan, blind richard, tripping through the dew (which i put in my list as a similar nod), and ab jones, to name a few. the “stewbuilder dennis” nickname is a reference to the oddly named indian that makes a stew out of a turtle sut caught and didn’t know what to do with (i reference this scene actually in this tumblr post.) the use of the word “yegg” for the second nickname parallels the only time in the novel that a definition is given for a word within the narrative. and lastly, the feverdream-like megalomaniac leader called “the judge” is thrice referred to by his first name “holden” in blood meridian, and he is a dastardly one indeed. now, suttree is always lauded for it’s characters and they weigh heavily on any reader due to their depth and palpable topography within the storyline. and, like john hodgman, once you start making up character nicknames (the best way is to envision someone either walking into the diviest locals-only poolhall or walking up to the hobofire under the old trestlebridge near where the traintracks and the river cross and imagine that an individual is prefaced with a look up from the group followed by “well if it isn’t [name-from-list]” and then a resumation of activity as the newly arrived finds his place amongst the inhabitants occurs), the cadence and succintness of nicknames becomes more like an instinctual ability to marry the coloration/character/magnificence of experiential ligustics and the emotions related to progressional tonality with tacit and circumscribable descriptors of character. to the lesser mind this could be construed as memetics, but after spending a somewhat awash night of drink focusing at the keyboard with one eye aslant and arms like an ogre’s club as though i was playing a game of drunken whack-a-mole with the english language, i really got on a roll with this nickname shit. 200+ names in a few hours was one of the funnest things i have ever done in regards to integrating language and sensory stimuli and emotional response, i suggest you spend time calling your significant other the most ridiculous things you can think of that still roll off the tongue as easily as they fit their meaning and your target.

and with that, “duckbutter jared ain’t-got-no-comb” is outta here.