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To be more specific: what’s in your name?
You might be surprised!
If you have a rather common name, it would not be difficult to find many others with the same moniker lurking in the depths, or rather the expanse of celestial communications. Whether you “Google” it, or use some other search engine, you’re bound to find others with your name ... and either less or more fame. It’s better than seeing a post office poster of someone with your personal designation ... like “Dick Andersen wanted for robbery!” You might even discover a movie personality, an athletic superstar or a well-moneyed financier who bears your name.
Recently, while watching TV news, I saw Amanda Baillie on the tube. Only it wasn’t “our” Welsh lass, but a drunk with the same name.
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Why she got on TV is that she was wearing a T-shirt that proudly announced, “I’m not an alcoholic, I’m a drunk. Alcoholics go to meetings.” That was not our girl, but she had the same name.
Our Amanda, however, can find her similarly named self being buried alive in Australia, or attending a reunion in New Zealand, or serving as program coordinator for a “Northern Physical Activity Week,” or graduating from King Edward VI high school in Stafford, Staffordshire, United Kingdom. That was 1989.
Another one with that name runs “Style Exotic Flowers” in Kinnaird Park, Edinburgh. A Scot, our Amanda is not! But maybe she wrote an article for the Commflyer at the University of Nebraska, Kearney, as she composed many for the Sierra Vista Herald. We know that Amanda Baillie is a champion VV dart league player ... at least in ‘06. But is she ours?
Current Mayor Bob Strain, according to Google, is an athletic award winner “for distinguished service” from Birmingham Southern College. Is that our Mayor Bob?
Another one by that name belongs to the Southeast Sasquatch Association and in 2006 reported to a close friend about a “bigfoot discovery project” that offered an outstanding exhibit.
But the most interesting thing to me was to discover a Bob Strain starred in a docu-drama called “Eyes in the Dark, The Sasquatch Experience,” which one reviewer termed “a quite professional and well-done documentary.” Hmmm?
Another Robert Strain belongs to the College of Insurance in New York. Does our Bob Strain own a “16-acre seasonal residence on Swans Island.” That’s what the Internet says about him or his namesake. Have you been his guest?
Tom Hessler, our former mayor, has surprisingly few colleagues with the same name.
One such fellow is named a band member on MySpace.com in Neo-soul/Progressive music, who apparently emanates from Hamburg, Wuppertal and Köln. Our Tom does have rhythm.
News reporter Dana Cole has many duplicately-named cohorts including the “founder and the director of the School of Flyfishing,” but he’s a male.
Our Dana is very much a lady.
There are others: one in Broken Bow, Neb., and another in Savannah, Ga., and a third who is a reporter in Oakland, Calif., but whether man or woman I cannot tell.
Those with her name own a hair salon, run a CPA business and serve as a “licensed Marriage and Family Therapist.”
Veteran journalist Bill Hess has a namesake working in Health Family and Child Care in Dakota County, Minn.
But his celebrity is matched by the Bill Hess who sold Kirstie Alley the Inn at the Park ... without inviting any of us for a weekend stay, I might add.
His most notable Wikipedia alter ego was the head coach for Ohio Bobcats football team from 1958-1977 with a 108-91-4 record, which was second only to legendary coach Don Peden. That Hess won two bowl games. Our Hess wins ...period!
Another Internet listing tells us Bill Hess operates Running Dog Publications in Wasilla, Alaska, while yet another works in the office of Bryan Cave in Kansas City. The Hess boys get around.
Not only is Pat Wick assistant general manager of the Sierra Vista Herald, but another has taken her name to dramatic heights. She was the 1996 production coordinator for Pacific Union College’s “The Passion Play.”
One Pat Wick was a fictional character in the BBC soap opera EastEnders. Should we expect more of a Hollywood flair from our Pat Wick? Definitely not! Let her be the original the others seek to copy.
You may not realize that on the Herald staff is a features editor whose duplicate provided “soaring voice and gothic queen looks” to the rock group, Tribe. “She had a voice like Siouxie Sioux’s but with better pitch,” wrote David Medsker about “The Lost Bands: Searching for ... Tribe.”
One name on the Herald’s staff I thought would stand alone is Cindy Skalsky, but no.
There are others with our education reporter’s name out there. One is a dog-breeder, specifically Border Collies; while another heads the Safe and Drug Free School program in Fergus Falls, Minn. Others are involved in the St. Cloud Diocese and 4-H club in Minnesota.
Sports editor Matt Hickman’s “twin” won the “Most Outstanding Player award” as “attackman” on Salisbury men’s 2007 lacrosse team with 75 goals. He was the second leading scorer for the league. That should make “our” Matt happy!
If not, he can consider the Matthew Hickman who is an epidemiologist at the British Imperial College of Medicine, who has testified before the House of Commons.
Then there is the Matt Hickman who made a name for himself as a fast wave-riding surfer in Ventura last September. Way to go!
A Temple University Matt Hickman is an author, while yet another preached a stirring sermon for his senior project at Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, Tenn.
If you want to hear it, go to Matthew Hickman, Senior Sermon to see what you’ll find.
It’s fun to play with the PC, and let the mouse do the walking.
But what about the big bosses at The Herald? What can that mouse nose out of Google about Keith Allen and Phil Vega?
Aside from being the managing editor of the paper, other Keith Allens can be found lecturing on the Philosophy of Morality or portraying the comic Sheriff of Nottingham on BBC One, or selling automobiles at the UK’s Keith Allen Car Sales.
Half of a pair of dueling pianists, look for Keith Allen at the Grand Inferno Show, or the photographer who does “weddings, portraits, conventions and sports” events.
Then there’s the namesake who is into mathematics at the University of Virginia. It’s amazing how talented these Keith Allens are.
I thought the name of our publisher, Phil Vega, would surely conjure up some exceedingly intriguing copies in other parts of the world.
Alas, there was a confession from a Brit ...”I played the free party scene in Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex mostly with Phil Vega from Vega Sound System,” but that’s second hand information. I can’t corroborate it. There appears to be a Phil Vega who writes for Scott Sports, and one who is a bicycle enthusiast. But that’s it …
…Except for a review of a July 24th Tucson performance by Bob Dylan. I don’t remember reading that one in The Herald. Maybe it was some other Phil Vega.
And what about me? Whether Dick or Richard, Andersen or Anderson, there’s not much to tell. There’s one involved in Minneapolis infectious diseases, and another who is James G. Boswell Professor of Neuroscience at University of California, Davis, and another into economics who has written many books.
Alas, no really famous actors or outstanding billionaires, politicians or painters!
We’re a humble lot, you see, meant to bask in the sunshine of others with famous alter egos to prod them on to success.
After 76 years, I’m not about to change my name to Warren Buffett or Prince William, albeit the wisdom of one and the assets of the other are not altogether untempting.
It’s fun to think some other Dick Andersen out there in cyberspace may be the next Senator Barack Obama or Billy Graham or Pulitzer Prize winner.
Dick Andersen is a writer for the Herald/Review and a retired minister living in Cochise County.
