warm as toast

when my youngest brother was born, my parents named him robert joseph smith*.

then they found out that there were two other robert joseph smiths in the same city we lived in.

and our neighbor kept calling him bobby joe. (picture adam sandler saying this, to the tune ofsloppy joe. that's kind of how it sounded. bobby joe, bob-bobay jooooooooe. for two weeks, straight.)

my mom wasn't fond of the nickname bobby joe, nor was she happy that there were two other bobby joe smiths in the phone book.

so, when he was two weeks old, she took him to the hospital and had his name changed. (to protect my brother's privacy, though he likely wouldn't care, i'm leaving his name out of this.)

i was pissed because she changed his name to the same name as two boys in my class. these two boys were both always in trouble. to the second grade me, who was never in trouble, this was not good.

i happen to love ollie's name, though sometimes i worry he's not going to love it when he's older. a girlfriend linked to this article on facebook tonight and, after reading it, i don't feel quite as bad about ollie's name...

*name changed to protect the innocent.