Friday, May 20, 2011

TIDBITS

     One of my favorite pastimes, when eating alone, is reading a copy of Tidbits, a free paper that is filled with infinitesimal tidbits of information.  They cover every aspect of our world from the past to the present.  The information is not something you would need to know, however, unless you were planning to be a contestant on Jeopardy, but it is a good read.
     This weeks copy had a theme of middle names and initials which made me think about my middle name.  Do you have a middle name?  Do you use it?
     I always hated my middle name and when I applied for a Passport and had to have a birth certificate to prove I was born, I was surprised to see that it did not include my middle name at all.  Whew!  That was a nice surprise.  Actually, my name is Elizabeth, but everyone calls me Betty, except my father who always called me Peg.  I don’t know where he got that name, maybe an old girl friend or something.  I asked him on day why he didn’t just name me Peg, if he liked it so much, and he said he would have except he thought he should name me after his mother.  In school I had a nickname of Bunny, because I wrinkled up my nose so much.  And my first husband, well, he always called me BK.  What are you going to do?  People will call you what they wish.
     President Harry S. Truman didn’t have a middle name.  His parents couldn’t decide whether to honor his maternal or paternal grandparents, so they gave him the middle initial S to stand for either name.
     Michael J. Fox added the J when he joined the actor’s guild, because there was already a Michael Fox registered.  His middle name is actually Andrew and he didn’t want to be known as Michael A. Fox, the reporters would have a field day with that one.
     I guess we all have nicknames and pet names given to us by our parents and friends, but we are stuck with our given names.  Can you imagine the ribbing a child would get with a name like, Candy Barr, Justin Case, or Ima Hogg?
     You have probably never heard of a man called Henry Wilson, but Hollywood has.  He chose names for up and coming stars like Merle Johnson, who was renamed Troy Donahue, Arthur Gelien, who changed into Tab Hunter, and Roy Fitzgerald, who was known as Rock Hudson.  He had a knack for picking names that would look good on a Hollywood Marquee.  Catchy though they may be, give me a plain old name any day.  How would you like to pick a new name?
     There are many other little tidbits of information in this publication put out weekly by Cabin Fever Media.
     This one will make you hurt a little.  Did you know that one billion bird’s crash into buildings in the USA every year?  Those mirrored high-rise office building windows are murder on birds.  
     But, enough bad news. 
     We all remember Katherine Hepburn, one of Hollywood’s most famous stars.  Her father was a surgeon and her mother was a dedicated suffragette and an early crusader for birth control.  Now you can see where Ms. Hepburn got her independence...from her mother.
     Some trivia might come in handy at your next dinner party, or at least, the center of an interesting conversation over cocktails.
     If  you haven’t had occasion to read Tidbits, do.  It will give you a chuckle!  It’s interesting and informative, at least, if you like insignificant little tidbits of knowledge, as I do.

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