The Knights of the Auto Order Proudly Present: The Auto Body Estimate: Vol. II, #94, Sept/Oct 2009
I'm not saying my wife is WAY smarter than me, but she often spells out words when she doesn't want me to know what she's talking about.
I'm thinking of spelling and my clever wife today as I reflect on our boys' names. Both have the middle initial J, and, in a bit of harmless family history revisionism, I'm here to say that this was a very intentional homage to Jay Ward and Bill J. Scott, creators of Rocket J. Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose. (I just learned that Matt Groening gave many Simpsons characters the same middle initial J for this very reason.)
Ever unintentionally toss off a pun, only to realize you've said it after the fact? I have (and I've taken credit for it, too). Ever heard of a song being interpreted in a completely different way than the songwriter intended? I have. Perhaps one explanation for this phenomemon is that the songwriter's subconsious mind is communicating despite (or around) the songwriter's concious mind. Perhaps this explains our boys' middle initials -- goodness knows my concious mind leaves plenty of leeway for anything else to circumvent it's feeble efforts!
While it is widely assumed that Rocky and Bullwinkle's middle initials were a tribute to their co- creators' first and middle names, Jay Ward reputedly once suggested that Bullwinkle's "J." stood for "George." Becca and I had toyed with George as a first name for our second baby. Oddly enough, there are two women important in our lives with this name, and George was always one of our favorite Beatles. I had suggested matching it up with my paternal grandfather's middle name, but for some reason Becca voted down George Jefferson Yoho. The added irony (applicable only to those who remember TV's "The Jeffersons") is that Becca's an asthma sufferer - and George and Weezy's British neighbor, Bentley, often addressed them as "Mr. J" and "Mrs. J."
I feel like I'm close to a conspiracy theory now!
When we'd decided on "Peter" but were struggling with his middle name, three-year-old Erik suggested a word I'd never heard him say before or since: "Satellite." I loved that too (Perhaps Erik's subconscious mind was suggesting Peter's future role relative to Erik's superior gravity), but again I couldn't get buy-in from the missus. I shouldn't suggest she's humorless on the subject, however. For a while we both delighted in the idea of naming the baby after her Uncle Ed. "Edward," her friends asked? No, "Uncle Ed," we'd reply, giggling as we rolled on top of the bag of corn chips and knocked over our "soft drinks."
Where am I going with this naming thing? Well, last month's Auto Body
Experience gig was called Yohopalooza, and it feels like this month's
gig deserves a name too, as there's lots to recommend it. Sax whiz
Jason Weismann will again be joining us, so we'll have the complete
"official" band line-up as seen on the back of baseball cards
everywhere. It also seems likely to be our last gig until December
(at the earliest) so that's reason to celebrate. No, wait, I mean
that's reason for this to be special.
But I still need a name for the gig, which, by the way, is happening on Friday, October 9th at the Minneapolis Eagles Club. Becca suggested "The Gig with No Name," but this time I'll veto HER name choice (she can start her own all America parodies band). I think I'll go with George. Please join us for George.
Love, Scott Yoho, Grand Pooh Bah, The Knights of the Auto Order
Return the Estimate Index...