Blogfinger

My name is Paul Goldfinger, but I never liked my name much——until I was introduced to Bond, James Bond; then the name thing changed for me.

Scene:   Quick Check, Rt. 33, Neptune.  I am there on a Sunday morning getting coffee and approaching the counter to pay.  A young man, high school age, curly red hair, awaits my arrival.  He wears a Quick Check uniform, including a green apron and a name tag.  He’s yawning.

Jospeh. November, 2019. Quick Check on Rt. 33, Neptune. Blogfinger photo ©  click once to read the tag.

Me:  Rough night?

He:  (Smiles)—out with my friends..

Me:  Did you know that teenagers have sleep deprivation in the morning and should take their SAT’s in the afternoon? (I’m thinking, this is a good kid, working a Sunday morning job.)

He: I heard about that. (Just then I notice his name tag.   It says, “Jospeh”)

Me:  Is that your name, or did they misspell your name tag?  (You never know with first names these days—Remember the movie “The Life of Pi?”)

He:  They spelled it wrong.

Me:  How do you pronounce your new name?

He: Jospeh

Me:  Goodbye Jospeh.  (I’m thinking why doesn’t he take off that silly name tag, or is he a kid with a brilliant sense of humor?  I like to think the latter.)

Note: Original post 2017.    I came back many months later  (in 2018 and again on a Sunday  morning in 2019)  and found him at the register. He still wore the Jospeh name-tag. I asked him if he was going to change it.  He smiled and shrugged, moving onto the next customer. He’s now a college student.

I thought, if I were still in high school, this kid would be my friend, and we all would call him Jospeh.

* “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”      From Romeo and Juliet.

Here is a link to a funny 2012 Charles Layton piece about names, on Blogfinger:

https://blogfinger.net/2012/10/13/the-blogfinger-grammarian-whats-in-a-name/

DON AND JUAN: