Wednesday, October 06, 2010

Nicknames from Smilin' Bob

Years ago (and I do mean YEARS ago), long before I became vegan or had even heard the word (and at which time I would not have thought the word could make sustaianble sense), a local radio personality, "Smilin' Bob" Yontz appeared at his radio sponsor, the local River Dale Dairy, where youthful fans crowded around him and asked him for nicknames so they could phone him during the mornings before they went to school and ask questions, tell him jokes, pose riddles, ask for favors, and ask for him to play their favorite tunes (I think we enjoyed during those years "Tie me kangaroo down" and "Does your chewing gum lose its flavor on the bedpost overnight" and similar works of artistic merit.

Nicknames from "Smilin' Bob" were odd but creative, sometimes witty, usually disconnected from the person, and sometimes downright insulting, if "Smilin' Bob" didn't take a shine to the person.

My name was 'soda' (unrelated to my love of seltzer water), and I managed to phone in (quite aggressively) and pose some great riddles he failed to guess well over half the time.

Pretty soon, I had a reputation for two things: (a) great riddles AND (b) managing (before touch tone phones - giving away my age) to redial the phone fast enough to get on the show nearly any morning I wanted to hear my own voice on the radio.

"Smilin' Bob" - if you're out there now, I remember you.

But hey, there are other things in life. Ha!

What's the difference between...?

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