Suebob's Red Stapler: The Story of Suebob

The InterCap still bugs me. I know it is a relic of becoming a young typesetter in the 80s, when ugly capital letters began appearing in the middle of words like we had had a sudden epidemic spacebar failure.

Yeah, it is so CommonNow that we don't even NoticeIt, but there was a day when we all lived in peace and harmony without words that were MashedTogether without much rhyme or reason. You try to tell kids that nowawadays, and they just won't listen.

What I am trying to say, of course, is that my name is NOT SueBob.

It is Suebob thanks to my college housemate, Stacy, who was doing the Walton's thing one night at bedtime "Goodnight Suebob" and suddenly it stuck.

Suebob is a weird name but I figure it gives people some advance warning about what they are dealing with: Look out ahead! Weirdo alert!

When my name was plain old Sue, people weren't forewarned and often made the mistake of treating me as if I were normal and then I'd start talking and they would begin backing away, slowly, while trying to watch my eyes and then they would miss the door handle and it would be so embarrassing for both of us, so...Suebob.

(My comment name is sueb0b with a zero in the middle simply to make it less googleable, since for some reason comments to a popular site often seem to score high on google and I just think that is weird, having my stupid late night comments pop up on google).

So please, Suebob with care. Don't waste those extra capital letters! You may need them someday.

Do YOU have a nickname?

26 comments:

Day Dreamer said...: Love those nicknames that stick!! (some, anyway)

I've been renamed Anno (to those closest to me) because some guy I barely dated said it within earshot of my best friend. We've been truncating names and adding an O for years now. Thanks Happy Harry!!; 10:57 AM
Mrs. G. said...: And all this time I thought your name was Nancy.; 11:54 AM
Miss Britt said...: Wait - why don't you want your comments googled?; 12:23 PM
coowen said...: My nickname was "hotdoggie girl" for a really, really long time. . .and not for the (seemingly) obvious reasons. Sure, I worked the streets of downtown Anchorage, but what I was peddling was sausage. . .real sausage. . .reindeer sausage.

Okay, this isn't helping my case, but really, truly, I was a hotdog vendor and I put myself through college by working the streets. Oops, there I go again!; 2:22 PM
LittlePea said...: Oh my. For some reason I feel like being embarrassingly honest. I have a nickname only my mom is allowed to call me and only on days that we're feeling exceptionally silly. It's "Panty." Yes. As in the kind you wear. I got it because when I was a toddler, I was always showing everyone my pink ruffled panties. yeah.

I love your nickname by the way.; 2:42 PM
super des said...: I am totally guilty of calling you SueBob with a capital B. I also say BlogHer. I shall stop now. SoSorry.; 2:55 PM
Amy Urquhart said...: People tend to call me "Ames" when they've known me for awhile. I like it. It means they're comfortable with me.; 3:20 PM
Count Mockula said...: Nope, I've never had one. Kara doesn't nickname well (yeah, I verbed that). And because I'm not one of a trillion Karas, people haven't needed to distinguish me from all the other Karas. A friend's mom used to call me Kare-bear, does that count?; 3:42 PM
Sister Wolf said...: I always think of you as Suebob. Sue is not enough.; 3:58 PM
thailandchani said...: I haven't acquired any new nicknames. It's just Chani. It does amuse me though when some people write (usually those who want exchange links or something like that) and they start out with "Hi ThailandChani!"

As if! Quickest way to get me to delete a message is to start off with "Hi ThailandChani!"

~*; 4:20 PM
Swistle said...: I am so glad to know this! And I hope it doesn't vanish from my memory as so many things do, leaving only the uncatchable trace: "Now, was it that it WAS with a capital, or that it WASN'T?"; 5:12 PM
Piece of Work said...: I always wondered about that nickname! And now I know. I've had a ton of nicknames thru the years--the ones that stuck: Amos, Shmoo, & Tommy. In the last 5 years, it's been Honey--which of course my husband calls me, but then his best friend picked up on it and calls me, and now his wife calls me that, and so on and so on.
I just love nicknames.; 6:36 PM
Suzanne Reisman said...: No nickname here, either. My mom was always very protective of my name. If someone tried calling me Susan or Susie, she'd immediately correct them. She said if she wanted me to be called something other than Suzanne, then that is what she would name me. Man, I love my ma.; 6:48 PM
Lady M said...: epidemic spacebar failure - I love that phrase.; 9:21 PM
Anonymous said...: just for you i will knock off the middle of the word caps. (can i still use no caps, or is that too pretentious? really i am just a lazy typist.)

my nickname is jenijen, though my favorite nickname ever was given to me by a cute waiter i worked with for many years -- jenoise (like the cake, genoise, pronounced "jen-wah")

xo; 10:10 PM
Overflowing Brain said...: My name is Kathryn, so Katie, which I go by, (rather than Overflowing Brain, which often doesn't fit in the boxes on forms) is my nickname.

My nickname also has nicknames including Kato-potatoe, kato-tomato and Tatie. Someday I'm hoping to shorten it to mom.; 10:14 PM
Kizz said...: Oops, I think I've been guilty of SueBobbing you. Sorry.

My nickname is actually Kizz. College roommate thing.; 8:35 AM
Susan C said...: So happy to finally hear the origin.

My name is also Sue, but I've always hated it. Too staccato. So I became Susan a couple dozen years ago.

Suebob would have been a good nickname for me too 'cause I'm from West Virginia and my brother's name is Bob.; 11:46 AM
Anonymous said...: I do, but it has a superfluous capital.

SarHa

(I have other too, that one just seemed fitting); 3:50 PM
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx said...: Cat. But that's not even close to as interesting as yours!

Found you through the effort to Blog the Recession - and glad that I did!; 7:32 PM
Anonymous said...: My father gave nicknames to all of his kids except me - which is pretty much a blessing since the nicknames Dad came up with were Tubby, Muscles and Runt. The only nice nickname was the baby's, who was lovingly called "The little one." I get called by Dad's generic nicknames, which can be pretty much used on any one, and they are either bean brain or pea brain. My Dad - he's got an interesting sense of humor!; 10:01 PM
Sherry said...: I can not tell you how much I love that your nickname came from a Walton's game.

My nickname of sherina came from a music producer when I worked in a recording studio. He always said it was a shame I didn't sing because "Sherina" would be such a great stage name.

To this day I still use it for one of my email addresses and my husband (as well as everyone we worked with at the studio) still calls me by that name.; 8:10 PM
Green-Eyed Momster said...: I am guilty of the intercap too! Please accept my apology! I will be more careful in the future! My nicknames are Mom, Love and Tray. I'll answer to anything but Ma'am because I hate Ma'am!!; 8:53 PM
Becky said...: Intercaps don't annoy me, which is strange because most things do.; 10:28 AM
Heather B. said...: People call me HeatherB like it's all one word. I will also respond to HB, Heath, Heath Bar, and "Hey, you want a refill?"; 4:50 PM
KiKi said...: But I like Sueb0b, with a zero instead of an "o."

I'm Kiki - which is not even close to my real name - and amazingly even that has morphed into Keeks, Keeker, and I'm afraid I'll soon become the Keester.; 11:26 AM