christian nutt ([info]ferricide) wrote,
@ 2008-07-24 18:38:00
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there's always someone with a bigger problem than you've got
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7522952.stm

the comments are also quite good.

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This is a difficult tale to tell via text...
[info]sosage
2008-07-25 03:22 am UTC (link)
...without ruining the surprise ending...

So my step father was a private detective in San Francisco during the 60's. One day he bumped into a couple of homicide detectives working a case in...I think...Hunter's Point. Through a bunch of plot twists and boring side story, they wind up working together to find this black female suspect that was known to live in a project around there.

They look up her name and are a tad confused by the spelling. Being three white guys in 1960's San Francisco, they figure this is some black name they've never heard of and just go along with it without a second thought. The three of them come to the conclusion that the strange name is probably pronounced theme-ah-lee.

So they can't find this chick. They're wandering around the projects asking, "You seen theme-ah-lee? You know theme-ah-lee?"

Everyone keeps looking at them with a blank face (well...blanker than normal for the work) and responding, "Who?" It becomes clear that they are somehow fucking up this exotic name.

They finally locate a close family member. During questioning one of them finally asks, "So...how are you supposed to pronounce this name?".

"Female". The family member responds.

"Wait. You mean. Woman female?"

"Yeah. You see. Her mother and father couldn't read. So the day she was born, the hospital handed her parents some paperwork and saw the word 'female' written on one of the lines. They thought the hospital had named their baby for them. So they stuck with it. I don't think they ever knew what it meant."

...this is where mother nature goes "ba boom pssshhhht!"

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Re: This is a difficult tale to tell via text...
[info]sosage
2008-07-25 03:33 am UTC (link)
Oh yeah. One more name related thing. My father grew up in the south before moving to the bay area. His father, my grandfather, was your typical white trucker living the drunk nomad trailer lifestyle. The grandfather, as a hilarious joke, legally named my father LeRoy.

Not a big deal in the here and now, but back then with racial relations as they were...it was pretty bad. My father hated him for that one.

I think my father thought naming me Stephen was some sort of "Man named Sue" situation (being so close to Stephanie)...but I thought it made me sound exotic.

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Re: This is a difficult tale to tell via text...
[info]zerochan
2008-07-25 06:11 am UTC (link)
http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.asp

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Re: This is a difficult tale to tell via text...
[info]sosage
2008-07-25 08:32 am UTC (link)
*shrug*...I personally don't consider it a fictional story based off of the nature of my source. YMMV though.

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[info]johntv
2008-07-25 06:12 am UTC (link)
LOL @ Benson and Hedges. Best twin names EVAR.

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