Can’t see the resemblance myself.
Oh dear. This is getting personal. Nicknames. There have been a few.
And we’re not talking Maccers, JoJo or your name with “-sy” appended.
But as the Loose Bloggers Consortium (see below) demands an answer, here goes.
Three spring to mind…
1. Bantam: Have you read the book Angela Ashes (or seen the film)? If so, you’ll be familiar with “stand-up, north of Ireland, Protestant hair” – the sort of hair that might have been dragged through a hedge backward – ending up like a bewitched barleystack. For some inexplicable reason, people have sometimes confused such a thatch with my own fine mane (see gravatar top right). Hence the nickname – bantam – sticky-up.
2. Irish: Paddy or Mick I’d find offensive, but somehow this didn’t bother me me. It was accurate. Not on the face of it insulting. I’m happy – proud to be so described. I liked the person who came up with it. I could imagine it as the moniker of character bound for the East Indies on a tramp steamer imagined by Joseph Conrad.
This planet may be familar to some of you.
3. Planet: As in – “What planet are you on?” Hey, I think laterally. Does that mean I have to be from Venus? Or Mars? Or even further afield? Like Valparaiso?
So there you go. My nicknames laid bare. To discover what the rest of the Loose Bloggers Consortium are called at work/ lunchtime at school/ in the pub – scroll down to their links on the right hand side of the screen.
PS – If the identity of that planet still eludes you, let Small Clanger give you a clue.
Bantam takes the cake!
Very fond of cake. Happy to peck away there.
Nics often say more about where we come from than who we are. The good ones are proudly worn as badges, hopefully, of honour. Well done ‘Bantam’ – I was think’n cocky not in the wind coiffure.
Aye, it could be worse.
I love the Clangers. In fact I feel like one of the Clangers. As for nicknames, I’ve never actually had one, only shortened versions of Nicholas, like Nick or Nicky. I wonder, does that mean people liked me, or they couldn’t care less about me?
“I’ve never actually had one…” Or did you? What about that one they used behind your back? See? Now you’re worried.
But no…
High time you had a more imaginative nickname. Something from the Clangers then. Soup Dragon maybe? I always liked him. (It?)
Bantam, I love it. When working in Germany a colleague from Turkey always called me ‘Irish girl’, like you, I was kinda proud of that handle.
Maybe that was because of the way you made your coffee in Germany? http://wp.me/pDjed-192
Part of my working wardrobe on occasion (under the white hospital coat, provided freshly laundered every day) was a black trousers and waistcoat that I made, worn with a white shirt and an emerald green tie. EVERYBODY remarked on that tie and became Irish for the day!
BWT does fine for me. It never fails to remind me of BTW!
And another thing…
Interesting that being Irish never entered into a nickname for me – those are all interesting and my take on bantam would be cocky, smallish in stature and tough as nails. Close?????
Sounds like not such a bad impression to give anyway.
When I was at school sometimes a nickname would be inherited from a big brother who had left; if he was still there then ‘big’ might be put before the senior and ‘little’ before the junior to distinguish eg big dog and little dog.
That would be a good way for the Little Billy Goat Gruff to warn potential aggressors that Big….. was in reserve to mete out a duffing if provoked.
I had to walk over a wooden bridge near a park on my way to school and someone told me I had run over it fast because Billy Goat Gruff lived under it and if I was slow he would “get” me – it was maybe 5′ long the bridge, reached by a steep sloping path and then a flat long part on the other side, I would often get to school breathless because if the bridge so much as rattled – I would continue running “he might be just behind me”
Haha! Love them- most inventive. Mine was Duracell- need I even go on!?
Hee hee – obviously because you keep going long after the others have flagged.
HM Queen Elizabeth has been called Duracell too. She has been going on and on for what appears to be for ever!
Clearly you’ve had one of those one-sided conversations with Her Maj too then?
I like the nickname Paddy; to my mind you’re tagged as a proud Irishman.
Blessings – Maxi
Of course being from New Zealand and when I was overseas: Kiwi springs to mind.
I personally don’t see me a flightless, scared of day, secretive bird (umm we don’t do flying)
Rather earlier in my Internet life used Tuatara – now that’s an animal that is definitely a treasure and ancient as well, related to the dinosaur period…
Welcome Cedar.
Great to host someone with a third eye (in your Tuatara capacity).
Your Welcome
I like the idea of someone being called planet. However, beware of Uranus.
Don’t worry. I’ve got it covered.
*grins*
Until about the third grade I thought my name was “Hey You”
I presume that was the abbreviated form of Hey You… Gorgeous?
No, but that is so kind. After the things they called me for the next six decades, well I would have liked to have kept Hey You. Most disheartening was to be in the sack and the broad would exclaim “Oh Robert” or “Oh William” or “Oh Geoffrey”. Was disparaging at first but my name was always “Happy” when I left in the morning.
Glad you had a happy ending.