Another thay, another thaler.

I'm a little late on the nick name thing -- some people joke and say "oh! Alice in Wonderland!" when they hear my name , well when I was younger. I hated that because my name is not Alice!

For a long time I did resist being "Ali" because that was Mom's name for me , but then after being online and catching myself sign "ali" on emails I decided I like Ali and that's what I want to be called. Except I forget to tell people that in real life.

Other than that I'm not really nicknameable.

Al(l)(y)(i)s(o)(i)n nicks mainly to Al and Ali in my experience.

I'm sure there are more nicknames, but as my sister's never gone by them, they are outside of my experience.

It's the spelling that's always throwing me. She's an Alison*, then you've got Allisons, Allysons, Alysons, and the occasional Al/l/i/y/sins.

*Technically, she's a Cindy, but for whatever reason, my parents stopped calling her that when she was about 2.

That's why that's happened? I was wondering.

No, no, it happened because the correct (German) spelling of the place the first fossils were found (the Neander Valley) is Neander Tal. However, when the fossils were discovered, German spelling hadn't been standardised. It was pronounced '-tal', but the '-thal' spelling was acceptable. That changed in 1904 to bring the spelling in line with the pronunciation.

Two other snippets: 'Neander' is not German, but Greek for 'new man' (the guy it was named after was called Neumann, and liked the Greek version). Nice coincidence for it to give its name to a new species (or subspecies, depending on where you stand in that argument) of human. Also, Neandertal Man escaped by only two years being known as Homo stupidus. One guy gave them that scientific name in 1866; fortunately for the Neandertals, H. neanderthalensis had already been suggested, and it's first in first served.

My sisters and I are generally referred to as, Whale, Kritters and Hank (in birth order). We call my mother Witch or MW (for Mother Witch). I have cousins called Boola, Pieds, and Ding-Dong. My aunt and uncle (their parents) are often referred to as Skunk and Smellen.

My father we call Dad. I have no idea how he escaped.

*Technically, she's a Cindy, but for whatever reason, my parents stopped calling her that when she was about 2.

They heard about me. I can't blame them.

No, no, it happened because the correct (German) spelling of the place the first fossils were found (the Neander Valley) is Neander Tal. However, when the fossils were discovered, German spelling hadn't been standardised. It was pronounced '-tal', but the '-thal' spelling was acceptable. That changed in 1904 to bring the spelling in line with the pronunciation.

lalala can't hear you NeanderTHAL-n-Pluto-n-Brontosaurus 4eva!!!

They heard about me. I can't blame them.

HA! You weren't even BORN yet. (My sister turns 46 this year.)

Nah, the claim I hear is that they had a babysitter named Cindy and decided it was easier to call Alison Alison instead. Have I mentioned I fail to understand my parents? I mean, why didn't they just call her by her second name? (Lee)

(Though maybe their mysterious Future Buffista Sensors were active enough to detect Perkins.)

Well, Leah, Sarah, and Rachel aren't as regularly nicked as, say, Susan, Stephen, James... they don't much have a built-in diminutive.

My roommate/bestfriend in college was named Leah, but no one ever called her that. Lee, usually, but Leely often too.

If I can order The Magic Bullet off of my tv and be using it to create the bestest egg salad you've ever seen by the following week

This sentence took my brain quite some time to parse. Magic Bullet making EGG SALAD?? Um, ew? Then I saw the smoothie thing, and realized it was not what it seemed.

My name, 'Karen', is truly un-nickable.

We called a friend Kare-bear. Also, randomly, Kobbles. But yeah, not so much with the "normal" or automatic nicks. (Heh! Though apparently with ChiKat's family the first one too!)

I am not a huge fan of my "real" first name (thus the going by meara all over!), including the fact that there's not a good nickname ("Shayshay" does not count. Nor does "Shanaynay". Though "Sha-na-ma-na (doot doo doo doo doot!)" does get a pass). It is very rarely pronounced or spelled correctly, and many people misremember it as "Shannon", which rhymes with my last name. I tell them my parents are freakish, but not that CRUEL.

Mostly I think of you as "our beloved Juliana," from just before you moved out here, which is occasionally initialised to "OBJ," which reminds me of LBJ and makes me giggle.

Hah! That's awesome, though "OBJ" also makes me think she should be a rapper.

I saw JZ posting earlier. Just wanted to extend the dinner invite to you and Hec as well, if you're interested/don't have plans :)

I saw JZ posting earlier. Just wanted to extend the dinner invite to you and Hec as well, if you're interested/don't have plans :)

Love to, but we've got Emmett and it's a school night, so we can't come out to play.