Baby naming

Being a parent can be as complicated as you choose to make it:

Lisa and Jon Stone of Lynnwood, Wash., turned to a name consultant because they didn't want their son to be "one of five Ashtons in the class," says Mrs. Stone, 36, a graphic designer. For Mr. Stone, 37, a production director for a nonprofit arts organization, the challenge was to find a "cool" name that would help his son stand out. "An unusual name gets people's attention when you're searching for a job or you're one in a field of many," he says.

At first they considered a family name, Greene, but thought Greene Stone sounded like "some New Age holistic product." Mr. Stone liked Finn Stone and Flynn Stone, but thought both sounded too much like the name of a cartoon family from the Stone Age. After reading through eight baby-name books, the Stones contacted Laura Wattenberg, author of "The Baby Name Wizard," for advice. She suggested they avoid names that ended in "s," given their last name, or names that seemed to create phrases. Her recommendations: Evander as a top choice, with Levi and Vaughn close behind.

When the Stones unveiled the name Evander Jet to family and friends three months ago, Mrs. Stone says they were surprised. "Everybody was like, 'Oh, you named him after the boxer,' when actually it's a really old name."

The Baby-Name Business (Wall Street Journal)

Evander is in Virgil's Aeneid.

Why didn't they go for Roland? (Sorry.)

Overheard

Overheard by my friend Stefan Hagemann:

"On the bright side, we can go see the squirrel museum anytime we want."

The museum, Stefan reports, is in Madison, Wisconsin, housed in a funeral home.

Caution: The link (also from Stefan) takes you to a page with thumbnail photographs of the exhibits, with dead, stuffed squirrels playing basketball, riding motorcycles, and things of that nature:

Squirrel Museum

(Thanks, Stefan!)

All "Overheard" posts (Pinboard)

Lombardo's Homer wins

Stanley Lombardo's unabridged recording of his translation of the Iliad has received the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award from the Independent Book Publishers Association for best adult nonfiction audiobook.

Nonfiction? Well, the Greeks did think of the Iliad as (to borrow Ezra Pound's definition of the epic) "a poem containing history."

Benjamin Franklin Awards, 2007
Stanley Lombardo recordings (Parmenides Audio)
Stanley Lombardo interview (Jacket)
"Wonderland of voices," review of Lombardo's Iliad and Odyssey recordings (Jacket)

Overheard

"It's not a beauty contest; it's a scholarship program."

All "overheard" posts (Pinboard)

A new Van Dyke Parks interview

From an interview series, Conversations about Creativity:

Cecil Vortex: Is there anything you've found that helps get you into a more creative mode?

Van Dyke Parks: Yes -- smoking is good. Smoking is very helpful. But it's deadly, so today is my second day without smoking. I stopped smoking on Sunday, having smoked for years.

I think that smoking is a very good thing to do -- it's got the association with the Indians; it's a peaceable thing. But like much else that the Indians gave us, we abused the privilege. And so, in my case I must simply stop. I'm too old to smoke. But I do believe that nicotine provides a great creative thrust….

Read the rest:

An Interview with Van Dyke Parks (Cecil Vortex)

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Happy birthday, Brian Wilson

Odd coincidence: someone from Hawthorne, California (on completely unrelated business) visited Orange Crate Art today, which reminded me that it's Brian Wilson's birthday. Brian Wilson is 65 today. Above, four stills of BW performing "Surf's Up," from the 1966 television special Inside Pop, hosted by Leonard Bernstein.

You can find the partial performance from this television show on YouTube, as excerpted from a more recent documentary. The voice at the end belongs to Van Dyke Parks, who wrote the words to Brian Wilson's music.

"Surf's Up" (Brian Wilson)

"Then you'll know I'm gone"

Kitty Carlisle Hart to her piano accompanist:

"When I die and there's a memorial service, I want you to go to the piano and play 'The Man I Love' in my key. If I don't come out on that stage, then you'll know I'm gone.”

From an article on the memorial service for Miss Carlisle:

Hart Was Doyenne of the Arts and Showbiz (New York Times)

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Kitty Carlisle Hart

Overheard

In the library, courtesy of my son Ben:

"Isn't there a song about summertime?"

Yes, there is. Or are. Enjoy, via YouTube:

"All Summer Long" (Brian Wilson)
"In the Good Old Summertime" (Chet Atkins)
"In the Summertime" (Mungo Jerry)
"Summer in the City" (The Lovin' Spoonful)
"Summertime" (Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald)
"Summertime" (Bill Evans Trio)
"Summertime" (Ella Fitzgerald)
"Summertime" (Renée Fleming)
"Summertime" (Jascha Heifetz)
"Summertime" (Billie Holiday)
"Summertime" (Leontyne Price)
"Summertime" (Doc Watson)
"Summertime Blues" (Blue Cheer)
"Summertime Blues" (Eddie Cochran)
"Summertime Blues" (The Who)

I know that Eddie Cochran should precede Blue Cheer, but Alphabetical Order is a mighty thing.

All "overheard" posts (Pinboard)

Fauxstess cupcakes

[Photograph by Rachel Leddy]

A vegan recreation of childhood. Yes, "creme"-filled, and delicious (and much better than the original). The recipe may be found in Isa Chandra Moskowitz's Vegan with a Vengeance. Isa and Terry Hope Romero are the authors of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.

(Thanks, Elaine and Rachel!)

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Barack Obama on race

One more passage from Barack Obama:

To say that we are one people is not to suggest that race no longer matters -- that the fight for equality has been won, or that the problems that minorities face in this country today are largely self-inflicted. We know the statistics: On almost every single socioeconomic indicator, from infant mortality to life expectancy to employment to home ownership, black and Latino Americans in particular continue to lag far behind their white counterparts. In corporate boardrooms across America, minorities are grossly underrepresented; in the United States Senate, there are only three Latinos and two Asian members (both from Hawaii), and as I write today I am the chamber's sole African American. To suggest that our racial attitudes play no part in these disparities is to turn a blind eye to both our history and our experience -- and to relieve ourselves of the responsibility to make things right.

Moreover, while my own upbringing hardly typifies the African American experience -- and although, largely through luck and circumstance, I now occupy a position that insulates me from most of the bumps and bruises that the average black man must endure -- I can recite the usual litany of petty slights that during my forty-five years have been directed my way: security guards tailing me as I shop in department stores, white couples who toss me their car keys as I stand outside a restaurant waiting for the valet, police cars pulling me over for no apparent reason. I know what it's like to have people tell me I can't do something because of my color, and I know the bitter swill of swallowed-back anger. I know as well that Michelle and I must be continually vigilant against some of the debilitating story lines that our daughters may absorb -- from TV and music and friends and the streets -- about who the world thinks they are, and what the world imagines they should be.

To think clearly about race, then, requires us to see the world on a split screen -- to maintain in our sights the kind of America that we want while looking squarely at America as it is, to acknowledge the sins of our past and the challenges of the present without becoming trapped in cynicism or despair.

Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (NY: Crown, 2006), 232-33

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