What’s in a name

— 09.30.2018 07:32 AM

The Starbucks closest to a campaign office always gets pretty busy. Campaign staff go there for meetings, to unwind, or just to get another shot of caffeine.

I was at the Starbucks near Tory HQ this early morning and the manager lady said to me: “Good morning, W.”

I loved that. It made me happy. As my wife, kids and friends will tell you, I don’t like it when people use my first name. I hate it, in fact.

My entire X Gang book series – and the new one, New Dark Ages , is out in a month, by the by – is about a guy who doesn’t ever use his first name, and who doesn’t like it when anyone else uses it, either.

Here’s a bit from the new book:

“It wasn’t the question that stopped me in my proverbial tracks. It was the use of my name. X didn’t like using first names – his, mine, anyone’s. It’s weird, but – as he explained it to me back in Middle School – he considered first names way too personal. One day, I asked him why a million times, and he finally offered up a semblance of an answer. “People use first names to be intimate, at the start,” he said. “Later on, they usually use first names to express disapproval.”

X was expressing disapproval.”

Certain Asian cultures have it right, I think. In Korea, for example. Don’t ever use someone’s given name, except in very limited circumstances.

Does all this make me weird(er)? Probably.

That’s how W is.


Comments (1)

Effect and causes

— 09.30.2018 06:19 AM

Here’s the past week, which is mid-to-high:


https://twitter.com/kinsellawarren/status/1046188128569106434?s=21

And here’s the main reasons for that:

There’s a theme, there.


Comments (9)

Globe: “Why the Keesmaat campaign is faltering”

— 09.28.2018 11:08 PM

• “Jennifer Keesmaat is in trouble. Her campaign to replace John Tory as mayor of Toronto has not achieved lift off and, with the election only three weeks away, time is running out.”

• “…she must bear part of the blame. The attacks she has made on Mr. Tory have often been unfair and ill-founded.”

• “[Her campaign] has a canned, scripted air about it. When she speaks you can almost hear the trainers in her corner…”

• “Ms. Keesmaat oversimplifies [crime,] a tough problem. She is doing the same on transit and housing. If Toronto is behind on building them, it is not down to Mr. Tory alone. All three levels of government, over many years, are at fault.”

• “…it just looks strange when Ms. Keesmaat pretends there is a yawning chasm between them. Having stood by his side at city hall, she makes an unlikely attack dog.”


Comments (3)

Take that, She-wolf of the Clueless

— 09.27.2018 12:01 PM

And congrats to Bernie, Richard, Evan et al. This is major. And wonderful.



Comments (11)