Showing posts with label what's in a name. Show all posts
Showing posts with label what's in a name. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Adventures in urban anthropology




In my neighborhood of Irvington, there is a plethora of elementary and middle schools: public, parochial, what have you (as Sister Michael Anthony used to say back when I was a pock-marked middle-schooler). Consequently, while walking the dog, I come across a lot of dropped paper items -- everything from report cards to draft-form love letters.

The note on the left arrested my attention. Obviously it's part of some sort of game; the flap on the bottom (the paper was folded up when I found it) displays several options, including to make out, to kiss or -- I think -- to "bunch." Or are all those things the same?

But it's the names that intrigue me. It's safe to say we've come a way from the bland Toms and Marys and Johns that populated my early education. I love the breadth of these appellations, but Isis? That's a lot to live up to.