More Fun with Bumper Stickers

[vovat]

Last night, bethje and I went to the mall, where she preordered Nintendogs, and the clerk apparently didn't know the word "dachshund" (even though the other versions of the game don't contain any words resembling "dachshund" in the least). Then we went to Wal-Mart, which had back-to-school displays of personalized pencils, notepads, and such. So many of the names they had in stock, especially for girls, were annoying yuppie names. I realize those are in fashion and all, but I have to suspect that forcing your daughter to go through life with a name like "Madison" proves that you have no love for the child OR yourself.

Anyway, I was hungry after that, so I tried one of those new premium chicken club sandwiches from McDonald's. It was pretty good, although it could have used some honey mustard or something. It typically comes with mayonnaise, but I'm not a big fan of mayo, so I asked them to leave it off, and it ended up being a little dry. Oh, well. Anyway, I had a coupon to get free fries and a drink with the sandwich, but the person at the drive-through seemed not to grasp this concept. I usually try not to be too hard on service workers, but this woman took forever to process my simple order, and started asking about cheeseburgers totally out of nowhere. I mean, come on!

After we got back to Beth's house, we watched Friday the 13th, Part 3. I thought this one was better than the other two, but they still made absolutely no effort to make the kids who die likeable or interesting at all. It DID have a crazy, stoned hippie who caught popcorn with his mouth, though, so I suppose that gives it a few points. {g} Also, this was the one where Jason started wearing the hockey mask, instead of just a bag over his head.

Today, I saw a van with a "Princess on board" bumper sticker. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the same van had a "Bush/Cheney 2004" sticker. Later, when I was getting gas, there was a PT Cruiser nearby with a bumper sticker reading, "Hey Hollywood, Fahrenheit This." I can only assume that it pertains to Fahrenheit 9/11, although maybe the driver was just a big supporter of the metric system. Regardless, the threat was pretty vague, as it was unclear exactly what Hollywood was supposed to be Fahrenheiting, or why.

Comments

[majellen.livejournal.com]

I deal with kids every day that have absolutely AWFUL names. Some examples:

Chanel, Sweety, Howard Johnson (yes, for real), Afryka, and even Ikea. Yes, like the store.

What's worse sometimes are the perfectly normal sounding names that have mangled spellings. Like Meghwhynne (pronounced "Megan")for example.

[rockonliz.livejournal.com]

Pretty soon "Megan" will just be spelled Xlajnfyl.ah,rfgukwn.

Lol.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

That's the South African spelling. {g}

Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Howard Johnson (yes, for real)

Is "Johnson" his last name or his middle name? If the former, I guess it's not QUITE as bad, since I assume Howard Johnson was a person's name before it was a restaurant chain.

Are those people who give their kids brand names hoping the companies will give them money for free advertising, or what?

As for "Ikea," maybe people should start giving their kids the names of the furniture brands they sell at Ikea. "These are my kids, Lycksele and Fägelbo."

Re: Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!

[revme.livejournal.com]

Heh, the funny thing would be if they ever went to Sweden, since all the brand names are just Swedish Nouns. So, yes, like, their chairs? They're basically just called "CHAIR" in Swedish. Which is kind of funny.

Also, IIRC, toddler_hiway, upon filing something for a horrible temp job found a child called "Maddysin" (I think i got the spelling 'right'). He said it basically was like the parents were preparing her early for her career as a stripper.

Re: Enjoy your affordable Swedish crap!

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, hey, SOMEONE has to keep the stripping industry alive! Besides, in our current economy, that's probably one of the few careers where you can still find a job. {g}

I think it's also possible that that kid's parents couldn't spell. That's pretty much the only way I can account for "Britney."

[bethje.livejournal.com]

Hey Trident, chew on this:

http://www.thenewparentsguide.com/most-popular-baby-names.htm

Maybe you will be influenced by one of those lists in a big way.

You never mentioned watching Sick.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

It's interesting that boys' names don't seem to change as much as girls' names. Aside from the addition of "Ethan," most of the top boys' names for last year are pretty similar to what they were when I was born, and probably much farther back than that. Also, a good many of the boys' names are Biblical, while fewer of the girls' ones seem to be. Out of the Top 20 girls' names, I think only "Hannah," "Elizabeth," and "Sarah" are Biblical.

Also, since when did "Hannah" and "Abigail" become popular again? They both sound old-fashioned to me.

The ninety-fourth most popular girls' name is "Aaliyah"? Just because the singer with that name died recently, or what? I mean, I was born the year Elvis died, and I don't think a lot of boys were named "Elvis" because of that.

For what it's worth, I actually like the names "Emily" and "Emma" (the former more than the latter). But "Madison"? Ugh...

You never mentioned watching Sick.

Actually, I did. Look at the last paragraph of this post (http://www.livejournal.com/users/vovat/151715.html). I didn't say much about it, though. For the record, I thought it was interesting, if a little disturbing.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Hannah and Abigail are BIG. Especially Hannah. The funny thing is I remember really liking both those names when I was younger and wishing they weren't considered old-fashioned!

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Hahahahahahahahahahah............
I too work with children and have to deal with trendy, weird, and just plain poor spelling... I actually wanted to name my first daughter "Madeleine" after Madeleine L'Engle but then I realised not only was it getting to be a horribly popular name, BUT it was consistantly spelled weird ways, AND it is WAY too close to "Madison," I mean all the other little girls who are called Maddie and all... and that would totally take away from the fact that I was ACTUALLY naming the poor girl after my favorite author, not being trendy....

Anyway, whenever I have to write a kid's name down, I always ask them to spell their name, even before I ask them what the name IS. I say it's because I'm being educational and trying to get them to think about how their name is spelled, but it's also just to be fair, because so many of them have such screwed up names. One of my co-workers has a story about how she asked a mother how to spell her daughter's complicated name and the mother was spelling it and she said "hyphen," so my coworker drew this: "-" and the mom said, "No, HYPHEN" and my coworker said "That IS a hyphen," and the mom said "No, THIS thing" and she made a " ' " in the air. "Oh, you mean an apostrophe," said my coworker in an attempt to be as perfectly friendly as possible! Anyway... talk about not knowing how to spell it.....

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Hmmm...Did Madeleine L'Engle have a middle name?

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

Actually L'Engle is her middle name-- it was her mother's maiden name. Her full name is Madeleine L'Engle Camp(original real last name) Franklin (married name). Why do I know things like this? Well anyway....

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess it wouldn't work to name your kid "L'Engle." {g}

I don't want to have kids, but if I ever change my mind, I don't think I'll go the route of naming one of them after my favorite author either. I mean, that would be L. Frank Baum, and I'm not particularly fond of either "Frank" or "Lyman" (Baum's first name) for a child.

[rockinlibrarian.livejournal.com]

"Frankie"'s kind of cute though.

[loz]

""Hey Hollywood, Fahrenheit This." I can only assume that it pertains to Fahrenheit 9/11, although maybe the driver was just a big supporter of the metric system. "

LMAO. I shouldn't be laughing this loudly in the Library.

[slfcllednowhere.livejournal.com]

My childhood was RUINED by the fact that personalized stuff would never ever ever have my name. Even worse, they would never even have my INITIAL on initial things. This still upsets me.

I think for some reason people are more willing to mess around and get "creative" with girl's names, but be more standard with boy's names. I have no idea why, though.