We can’t let a Whack-a-Mole reference go by without linking to Cameron Esposito’s “Guacamole” bit! (In case the “start at” feature in the link doesn’t work, you might want to skip an intro and jump to about 1:40.)
This LOL-Meta from Argyle Sweater surprises me a little by taking it for granted that kids that age would tease (or try to insult) each other in the terms Sara used.
I just need to say I’m impressed how he selected and wrote out the twenty-five names.
And a thorough Ewww-LOL:
Comics I Don't Understand 
I did enjoy that Cameron Esposito clip (again). If you will let me avoid naming a sappy network TV domestic-drama show I sometimes watch, I’ll mention that she has recently been doing a good job there in a recurring role, as a more-central character’s extramarital romantic interest.
Especially as one of the surnames he chose is my paternal grandmother’s family name, and was so precious they gave it to my father as his first name (though he wasn’t thrilled with it).
Utterly irrelevant to this comic, but it’s a reply to something from a month and a half ago which would never be seen by the questioner: (And I think comments are closed, in any case.) So:
“Boise Ed asked, ‘I’m looking for a Tumbleweeds in which Bucolic Buffalo picks up Limpid Lizard (I think), says “Not like-um little man. Fow-um away,” then tosses him over his shoulder.'”
The actual wording was ‘Non likum lil mans.’ ‘Hatum duts!’ ‘Frowm way.’ Or maybe ‘dats’. I can’t give a source for it, but Googling pieces of it (or variant spellings) does get hits. I didn’t see a pointer to the actual strip.
My sister and I really liked this one, and ‘Frowm way’ became a catchphrase between us.for undesirable things.
Treesong says “(And I think comments are closed, in any case.)”
Possibly, but that’s not generally the case with threads from regular CIDU posts. Very old and long-untouched threads get revived with new follow up comments pretty often. (But there’s nothing wrong with you preferring to place your comment in a more-current thread.)
For the Random Comments and Site Comments threads, where the thread gets long and unwieldy, and so once in a while a new basenote is posted to seed a new section of the thread, the old one will get closed to further comment.
Treesong: larK’s comment indexer means that nowadays comments on old posts are, actually, reasonably likely to be seen.
Also there is an option within the plain website browser view.
First, click on the the triple-line menu icon at upper left.
Then on Home in the sidebar menu below it.
Then on the paper-file-folder shape icon next to the triple-line menu icon.
A list of links to most recent 15 comments (for any thread) will be in the left sidebar.
Those positions and clicks are in terms of fullsize browser window. They of course differ somewhat for tablet and phone formats.
@ larK – I know you aren’t going to reveal the name, but it was great fun looking through all the possibilities and wondering which one might be the correct answer.
P.S. That father in the movie theater has gigantic hands!
@Kilby: If I tell you my father was born in Berlin in 1940, I’m pretty sure you’ll get the correct one.
@ larK – That clue confused me completely at first, but after some careful thought, I think it narrows the field to three possible surnames, only two of which would qualify under German rules as a given name. Since your dad wasn’t all that happy with the choice, that narrows it down to one. Did he normally go by his middle name? If I had that name, I think I would.
P.S. My own father was called by his middle name as a kid, and his siblings still call him that today, which we alway found rather amusing. His father had the same first name, but was also called by his middle name, and I think the tradition may be at least one generation older than that. My dad didn’t switch to his “normal” first name until he joined the Navy (and it was more of an accident of bureaucracy than anything else).
P.P.S. German parents can saddle their kids anywhere from one to five “given” names (my wife’s father has three). Up until recently, the parents could nominate any one of the “given” names as the official “calling” name (it would then be underlined on the birth certificate). This feature was eliminated in a recent reform of naming rules: you are now free to call yourself by whatever given name you prefer.
It’s also nice that the last-named of the current partners is a legal Yeagle.
And the W person was lucky to not be a full washout.
Hmm… I really didn’t think it would be that ambiguous. What are the current German name rules that you are familiar with? I’ll tell you if it conforms with them or not. (Though he had three names, he didn’t go by either of the middle names (now you have me wondering if they were indeed middle names or extra first names?); what he mostly disliked about his first name was the non-standard orthography (though he would be the first to point out that it actually was, according to German spelling rules, the more correct orthography).
Sorry, no I take it back about the non-standard orthography — that’s me projecting. What he hated about his name was the predictable exchange of “What’s you name?” and he’d say it, and then they’d ask, “And what’s your FIRST name?”
well that is gross
@ larK – In general, the German regulations for given names frown on “inventiveness”. It is generally assumed that only names that have already been established can be used. Just because someone likes (for instance) “maple” (trees or syrup), that doesn’t mean that “Maple” can be turned into a name (in Germany). The rules also specifically prohibit using any name that might endanger the child or expose the kid to ridicule. In the US there are no rules, people can (and do) give their kids all sorts of crazy names. The odd thing is that once one of those names has become popular enough (there), that (foreign) popularity can be used as evidence in Germany to prove that a name has somehow become “acceptable”.
Germany does not distinguish between “first” and “middle” names, they are all simply “given” names, although they do have a specified order on the birth certificate. Theoretically, any one of them can be the “usage” name, but in practice, almost everyone assumes that the first one is the “usual” name, unless you inform them differently.
P.S. Your clue about “non-standard orthography” meant that I chose wrong between my two final possibilities, and shortens the correct answer by two characters. It seems fine to me (at least for here), but I can see that the spelling might be seen as “odd” in America. I didn’t even consider the possibility that DB-LD mentioned. No matter which language is used to interpret the meaning of the word (English: “disgusting”, German: “large”), there is no way that any German “registrar” would accept “Gross” as a given name.
P.P.S. It was my idea to use a nickname for my daughter, which had been on our prospective “short list”, but which my wife felt was not “formal” enough for the actual birth certificate. This worked fine until second grade, when a new girl in her class had that exact same nickname as her actual “real” name. After that, my daughter insisted on changing back to her “official” name (to avoid confusion). The odd thing is that my wife is the one who has had the hardest time switching back, even though she wasn’t in favor of that nickname at the beginning.
@ DB-LD – It’s a normal German word (normally spelled with an “ß”, except in Switzerland where the “Eszett” is not used), so it would have been a good candidate, except for the negative meaning. Although, after rethinking the primary clues (“what’s your first name” and “non-standard spelling“), I now think that neither of my first two guesses were correct, and have discovered a possibility that I had overlooked before.
Wow, I really didn’t think anyone would care, and certainly not to this extent! I’m now torn, in that I never really wanted to disclose the name, but now I almost feel I have to… I also regret the post about the orthography — I conflated what was my main experience with his unusual first name, but for him was only a minor added coda in his later life as a US immigrant. I mentioned his birth year and city to put one in mind of the political reality of the time as an aid in disqualifying most of the possible names without having to come right out and say it.
I would actually prefer that you not reveal the answer. It was a fun puzzle, and I think I found an acceptable solution, but I don’t really need to know whether my guess is correct (and certainly not at the cost of revealing personal data).
Yes, my remark about “gross” was meant as a guess. I thought it might fit with the clue about orthographic questions, as I’m not sure if it’s ever written with the eszett or always with double –ss–.
I’ll just add (and join Kilby in not expecting a definitive answer) that for many people “Allen” is the spelling for a surname but looks wrong for a given name, which would be spelled “Alan” (or in some places “Alun”).
I considered that possibility, too, but it doesn’t seem “Germanic” enough for 1940.
So, given the clues I gave, I myself see three possibilities, though one of them is weak, so really, more like 2 and half possibilities.
FWIW, I haven’t a clue.
@ larK – I sent you a direct e-mail with my answer. It didn’t bounce, but it might have landed in your spam folder. I’m still not expecting you to reveal anything, I just wanted to let you know the logical steps I used to land at my one and two “half” possibilities.
@Kilby: I’m assuming you used the email address I use for this site, that you got it from Mitch. I rarely check that address, but I just logged in, and there was nothing from you, not in the inbox, not in spam…
@Kilby: I’m assuming you used the email address I use for this site, that you got it from Mitch. I rarely check that address, but I just logged in, and there was nothing from you, not in the inbox, not in spam
Actually I wasn’t involved. But since you seem to be saying it’s okay, I’m dropping you both a line with these commenting addresses showing.
@ larK – The previous (wrong) address wasn’t from the site, it was from an old group e-mail conversation (in September 2020), when we were discussing setting up a new site, or to keep maintaining this one. A new e-mail is now on its way to the correct address (thanks, Mitch!)