Eclectic Views

    
Are you sure?
  

    
(Hush, <gerry>.  Let him think he's pbs.)
  

    
Moi?
  

    
No, (moi)'s on third.
  

    
Bush is on TV.
  

    
Nader was on PBS.










No, no, get that image out of your heads....
  

    
He's not heavy...
  

    
#256  LOL!! 

That image will be associated with pbs for the remainder of his LIFE!
  

    
Or until it's surplanted by an even more amusing image. ;-)
  

    
I am surprised that I did not answer this 15 years ago...

Mercury is the Roman god of merchants and thieves, the messenger of
the gods. His analogs include Thoth who invented writing; and Hermes,
another Traveler, quickwitted, and inventor of the lyre.

Back in 1984, on a DEC VAX, I asked for username=scorpio, but it was
taken.  (In some Chinese astronomy, what we call Scorpio, they call The
Marketplace.)  So, my second choice was Mercury.  I have had it ever
since on one system or another, including this one since way back when.

I have pictures of Mercury/Hermes from European statues.  I have
ancient coins with the gods and/or their caduceus.  Among them is a run
from Thrace/Macedon where Hermes was one of many fertility gods.  I
have a Roman large semi-uncia, a big, thick bronze coin 30 grams, with
Mercury on one side.  He wears a kausia or traveler's cap. I even have
an arty little experiment from the Gallery Mint Museum with the Liberty
of the "Mercury" Dime done in the same style as Roman republican
coins.  The Mercury Dime is the only series of coins I have come close
to completing.  

I have a banknote from Brazil and more than a few stock certificates
from U.S. corporations with the image of Mercury on them.

As far as Project Mercury goes, I also have more than a few mementos
from that, including John Glenn's autograph on a John Glenn "Space"
bubblegum card from 1961.  

Not suprisiing, perhaps, when I was a kid, the car of choice in our
family was the Mercury.
  

    
When i opened my Well account, it was my first userid ever and i
wanted to come up with something clever, but the physicist boyfriend
who helped me set up my acct said i should be grateful to be able to
use my actual name for a login.  He was even a bit envious, his own
name being Tom.  So i reluctantly went with it, thinking i cd always
change it someday, but as things went along, and i realized how much
people refer to you by yr userid in conversation, i was in fact glad
that i hadn't tried to get fancy.  otoh, sometimes i wonder if i'd have
a different WELLpersona if i'd chosen an identity that i cd hide
behind a little.
  

    
I think your boyfriend was right, <nettie>.  I feel fortunate to have
my name as my user ID, too.
  

    
But if your user id is something other than your name, you become used
to people referring to you by your user id.  I feel interpellated when
someone says "rosmar" to the same degree I do when they say "Maria." 
"rosmar" feels like my nickname in this place.   
  

    
Exactly.  When I'm reading the well, and someone says "Tony", I have
to pause and go, "Who's Tony?  OH!  That's me!", in spite of going by
Tony all my life.
  

    
I actually find it perplexing someone I know is on the WELL introduces
themselves as Bill or Jane or Mike, leaving me to try and figure out
what name I'm supposed to know them by. 
  

    
At WELL events I always introduce myself by both names.
  

    
I used to have a problem like that.
  

    <scribbled by satyr Sat 29 Apr 06 12:37>
  

    
lrph = My full initials = Lisa Rachel Poskanzer Harris.

And ditto on the taking a double take when people call me by my given
name when I'm here. I'm so used to being lrph that Lisa is as foreign
to me here as "Mrs. Harris" was before I had young children in my life.
 
  

    
Interesting.  I have trained myself to read "lrph" as "Lisa" instead of
mentally pronouncing it  -- probably as "Lerf" -- which is my 
usual inclination with all IDs.  Maybe to avoid thinking of you as a guy 
at some point in the past.  Funny how that goes.  
  

    
> thinking of you as a guy at some point in the past

No no, that's Lerf Ericsson.

I find that "Lerf" does not convey a sense of gender to me; though it might
suggest an extra-terrestrial, and who knows how they're organized in that
department.
  

    
I guess keeping my name as my pseud is a help for keeping my gender
straight.
  

    
Yep!
  

    
My user name is due to the soft spot I still have in my heart for one
of the sorriest pro football teams of all time, the 1972 Houston Oilers
who finished that season 1-13.  To show how serious they were about
stinking up the National Football League in those days, they finished
1-13 again in 1973.  

Fortunately they did have cool uniforms.  And the Oilers did get a lot
better starting in 1974.
  

    
Heh!  That's kinda sweet.  And it explains why you're into the <sports.>
conference.