In honor of CIDU Bill (Bill Bickel — and definitely not Idiot Bill Bickel) here’s a bit of a tribute:
Usual John sends this in: “I can’t help thinking of Idiot Bill Bickel, and the name Bilden Bickworm makes me think that may not be just coincidence. FYI for those who have not been following CIDU for years: Idiot Bill Bickel was (and presumably still is) a real estate agent who had the same name as CIDU Bill (the original moderator of this website) and inexplicably sometimes gave people CIDU Bill’s email address instead of his own.”
(This was posted as a LOL some months ago; it seems appropriate to repeat it here)
Comics I Don't Understand 
I think something may have glitched on the upload? There are a lot more tags than comics and I have a feeling the tags are right.
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Once my career progressed to the stage where I could stay at nicer hotels on the company dime, I began to run into the issue of sharing a name with a much wealthier guy.
“Are you the [my real name here] of [not my town]?”
I found out early that if I said yes, I got free upgrades and other nice perks.
“Yes. Yes, I am.”
Fast forward a year or two: that guy became a client of a client, I would find myself invited to online meetings I had to no business being in.
—
Antonin Scalia used to tell a story about checking into a hotel and having to spell his name, and every once in a while having a clerk ask, “Like the Supreme Court justice?”
“Yeah, just like him.”
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@Andrew Millar: No, the tags are wrong. In order not to forget this annual tribute to Bill, I copy the previous year’s tribute forward to next year, but don’t update the comics until something particularly appropriate comes in. I updated the comics, but did not delete the old tags from last year. Fixed now, just like my cat. :)
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@Max C. Webster: You might enjoy this from 1992
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I have a somewhat unusual name, and I established email addresses at two or three of the early free email services (you know the ones; in exchange for free email they serve up ads based on keywords in your email, and now each of them has hundreds of millions of users) early enough that I could use my actual name without adding numbers, like jsmith@dontbeevil.com. Well, my name is not totally unique in the world, and those other people who share my name sometimes forget that their own email address @dontbeevil.com DOES have a number or something in it to distinguish it from mine.
I have found out a few interesting things about certain people I don’t know. For one, I am better at paying my bills than certain others who share my name.
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This might be a false memory, but I think the comic about the name was on the site around the time it was published and the cartoonist said it was a coincidence and wasn’t influenced by CIDU Bill’s email issues.
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Susanna has an excellent memory: Bill’s post (dated 23-Jun-2018) is here:
Scroll down to comment #26.
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Susanna has an excellent memory: Bill’s original post (dated 23-Jun-2018) is here:
Scroll down to comment #26.
P.S. Apologies if this comment ends up with duplicate copies, WordPress is being obnoxiously difficult about logging in.
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Max C. Webster, III – The name Meryl (which is what I am stuck with) used to be even much less common than it is now. Generally, when someone did the know the name they knew it as a male name not a female name.
When I would go to a bar mitzvah or such where there was a lot of children at a formal meal they would put out name cards – and sit the children alternating boy/girl – I would generally end up between 2 other girls as it was presumed that I was a boy.
One of the best things which happened to me was Meryl Streep. I was then able say my name, say “Meryl as in Meryl Streep” and then spell it – and they assumed a female. I did meet her once. When we used to go to Broadway shows with discount tickets from the TKTS booth we would wait at the stage door (with many others) and she was in a play we saw. We waited at the door – husband insisted that I was NOT to ask her if she hated her name also – so I did not. She was extremely nice – more so than many others we have waited for.
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Three of Meryl Streep’s daughters work as actresses, none of them using the name Streep. And all three pretty strongly resembling her. Well, I ran into a picture of Grace Gummer (I was looking up Frances Ha) and immediately saw the resemblance. But OTOH I have to admit to having watched all the seasons so far of The Gilded Age and never noticing the resemblance to Streep of Louisa Jacobson (who plays Marion, one of the main characters).
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Mitch – Our (often mentioned by me) 18th c reenactment unit does some events at the local restored, historic village. While most of the village is set in the 19th century one home dates back to the 18th and we do events there. We also take over the house for the “Village’s'” Christmas event several nights of same.
In general, much has been filmed of “The Gilded Age” in the village. When husband and I were watching one episode I got excited “they are filming in our kitchen!! ” A number of times they have had people on the porch of the house or looking out the window of the house.
They were in what is called the kitchen of the 18th century house in the village, which our unit takes over to interpret when we are there. (In actuality the kitchen would have been a separate building to keep smoke and odors out of the house, but there is a huge fireplace in the dining room which would have done well for same so it is referred as same by the village and so also by us when we are there) The family in the house was from Holland so they have a fireplace as is would have been in their old country and the house varies from the standard 18th century English colonial house which one sees due to same.
Fireplace in the “kitchen” is also of a different style then one normally sees as it is Dutch style of same. Mantle juts into the room from the wall and the fire is lit under the mantle. The mantle is high enough that I can (though I am just over 5′ tall) walk under same. It does heat very well (though there is modern heat in the house also.) Upstairs in the house there is a full second floor where one can easily stand up straight – but in period (and now) it would only have been used for storage – not what is normal in an “English” house of the period.
And Meryl’s daughters took their dad’s last name.
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