3242 Costs of defense; Baby names

Saturday, May 7, 2011

A classic is something that everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.
--Mark Twain --

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This is an excellent article on what 9/11 and the resultant security has cost. It's especially exceptional considering the source. I don't usually think of Yahoo as presenting well-researched hard news.

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Well, the baby did get a name before leaving the hospital. Daughter and Hercules wanted to wait until they'd met her before naming her. You know, some idea of her personality or something. Of course I can't tell the name here, but, sigh, it's pretty ordinary, and I don't think it's a family or friend retread. Which is good.

Of course, being over 65, I found something (Get off my lawn!) to be annoyed about. Their delay didn't bother me at all, but the impatience of others was grossly annoying. Not so much their friends, but other family members.

When friends called, they asked how Mommy and baby were doing, and so on. They might ask somewhere in the middle if a name had been chosen, and that was it. Family, however, really pissed me off. It got to where that was the first question they asked. And when told there was no name yet, they pushed! And pushed and pushed. Like it was of absolute vital importance that they know what the baby's name was, immediately!

I don't understand what was so hard about referring to the kid as "Daughter and Hercules' baby". What's so important about a name?

My suspicion was that they weren't so much simply wanting to know what the baby's name was --- they wanted to know who she was named after! So they'd know whether they should be flattered or insulted. That pissed me off.

I was also annoyed that Hercules' mother thrust herself into the naming game. She had no right to push or reject any names. Me, I stood back and said, to every name Daughter and Hercules explored, "Yeah, that's nice/unusual/strong/unique/pretty" as applied. I made no suggestions. I figured it wasn't my place to suggest or disapprove any names.

Hercules's mother wasn't of the same opinion. She and I have similar first names, and she suggested brightly that our name would be appropriate. That's the first time I expressed a definite opinion. I hate my first name, have always hated it, and asked that they please not saddle the kid with it. And I didn't much care if I insulted Hercules' mother. I don't think she should have put that kind of pressure on them anyway - and yeah, it was pressure, unless she's really so stupid as to assume the kids hadn't already considered and rejected that.

I'll admit I don't like her. She never shuts up, she pushes herself in even where she's been told to back off, she's a ditz. She sees signs and omens everywhere, and if she finds out your exact birthdate and time, she'll run your astrological whatchamacallit, and then for the rest of your life she'll be predicting things for you and "helping" you make decisions. Daughter had asked her not to come to the hospital when she was in labor. She did. Daughter didn't want her to know the time of birth. She does now.

When the kids mentioned possible names, she had to know the "meaning" of the name. Like it matters, you fool! One of the early names was "Sojourn", as in "Sojourner Truth". I actually liked it. But she didn't, because it means "a temporary stay", and OMG! That's a bad omen!!! Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad....

I could dislike her for that alone.

Oh, cripes.
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