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Nominative Determinism

Defrauding the victims of the tragic drought? Terrible. Defrauding people when your surname is 'Swindle'...does anyone know of other examples of 'born to follow their surname'?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-07/parkes-man-steven-swindle-jailed-for-hay-scam/11924068
I knew of someone who went by the surname Swindells who turned out not to be the sort of person to trust with paying the household's rent to the landlord :rcard:

Meanwhile, Francine Prose is
a novelist
.
 
Guardian story, 10/8/20 -

Police officer admits performing sex acts on colleague at station

A police officer has admitted performing sex acts with a senior sergeant at their police station, a misconduct hearing has been told.

PC Jemma Dicks, 28, is accused of gross misconduct for giving oral sex to a then police sergeant, Adam Reed, several times between November 2017 and August 2018 at Cardiff Central police station.

Well, it made ME laugh.
 
From the report:

“The officer says the conduct admitted amounts to misconduct but not gross misconduct.”

I’d tend to agree. I’d raise the issue with her, but she’s keeping her head down.

maximus otter

It'll all blow over.
 
From the report:

“The officer says the conduct admitted amounts to misconduct but not gross misconduct.”

I’d tend to agree. I’d raise the issue with her, but she’s keeping her head down.

maximus otter
So that's why they're called 'bobbies'.
 
It was a common phrase when I was nipper (maybe still is) to say "Gordon Bennett!" as an exclamation.
Then I discovered that the vicar at a local church was the Rev. Gordon Bennett.
I'm not sure if the two are related.
 
It was a common phrase when I was nipper (maybe still is) to say "Gordon Bennett!" as an exclamation.
Then I discovered that the vicar at a local church was the Rev. Gordon Bennett.
I'm not sure if the two are related.

The original Gordon Bennett was indeed a clergyman.

I say 'Gordon Bennett!' now and then, it's funnier than swearing.
 
From the report:

“The officer says the conduct admitted amounts to misconduct but not gross misconduct.”
This was, then (officially) misconduct in a public office whilst in a private office, by two officers acting in their own personal capacities.

Which is difficult to say, perhaps hard to swallow, and has the capacity to leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.
 
I've always been under the impression that the original was a behaviourally challenged American newspaper publisher.
Very likely. Depends what you've read first. I came across the 'minor English cleric' explanation decades ago and was happy with that.

However, I did Google it just now and discovered a rich seam of the meanings of name-related sayings.

Apparently the expression 'Bob's your uncle!' derives from an actual act of political nepotism -

In 1887, British Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil appointed his nephew Arthur James Balfour as Minister for Ireland. The phrase 'Bob's your uncle' was coined when Arthur referred to the Prime Minister as 'Uncle Bob'. Apparently, it's very simple to become a minister when Bob's your uncle!

As a child I was often puzzled by this reference to my own extended family. What did my Uncle Bob have to do with anything?
 
The original Gordon Bennett was indeed a clergyman.

I say 'Gordon Bennett!' now and then, it's funnier than swearing.

The Gordon Bennett behind the euphemism though was James Gordon Bennett Jr (born 1841).
He was the immensely wealthy publisher of the New York Herald, famed for his scandalously hedonistic lifestyle.
In one infamous incident, he arrived late and very drunk at a dinner party and urinated into the host's grand piano.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gordon_Bennett_Jr.
 
I wonder if that incident was the origin of the phrase, "Have a tinkle on the old Joanna"?

maximus otter
 
An amputation surgeon named... Dr Hopper!

https://inews.co.uk/news/uk/dr-neil-hopper-amputation-surgeon-lost-legs-bravery-award-728317?ito=social|facebook|fb_theipaper&fbclid=IwAR19ideoxVWb9m4AncID0P09NDtQRXOW8FkwOjckBCy4VPJlrZYh0ELWpd8

Dr Neil Hopper: Amputation surgeon who lost his own legs is honoured with bravery award
Dr Hopper has been working to improve aftercare for amputees and for NHS amputee clinics to provide better emotional support

Poor guy but he hasn’t let it stop him do some important work.
 
Lawrence Crook.

https://www.foxnews.com/us/nj-man-arrested-less-than-an-hour-after-being-released-on-earlier-bust

"A New Jersey man was busted in Connecticut on trespassing and burglary charges less than an hour after being released from custody for a drug and larceny arrest, police said.

Lawrence Crook, 37, of Jersey City, was first arrested in Fairfield on Oct. 8 on charges of first-degree larceny, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia after a man at a condo complex told cops he saw Crook with a black SUV acting suspiciously, police told the Fairfield Citizen."
 
WARSAW, Poland—A mystery left unsolved by the spies of the Communist era reopened one recent morning, when an archivist found a curious folder sheltered in a warehouse of secret files from the Cold War.

In 1964, a British diplomat arrived in the capital, then vanished, thwarting the minders ordered to shadow his every movement. He was next seen snooping around a military base along the border of the Soviet Union. Dark-haired and inconspicuous, the suspected agent had all the makings of a discreet operative except for one glaring giveaway.

His name was Bond. James Bond.

im-247362


Filip Hagenbeck, the ex-leader of [Poland's] Counterintelligence Branch Ten, the agency tasked with rooting out foreign spies:

“Frankly speaking, I don’t think he was a spy,” said Mr. Hagenbeck, whose assumption is that Mr. Bond was a decoy. The first Bond movie– “Dr. No ” starring Sean Connery–had just come out in 1962, and Mr. Hagenbeck suspects London knew a man with his name would distract Polish counterintelligence from more sensitive operations under way.

“They were sending him to make him some kind of bait. To make counterintelligence chase him instead of other persons,” said Mr. Hagenbeck. “It was a game which was played, you know?”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/declas...ble-spy-in-polandnamed-james-bond-11603391492

maximus otter
 
On t'wireless just now, discussion of the work of an eminent English choreographer, who has created works for the English National Ballet and the Royal Ballet.

May I present the distinguished Mr Will Tuckett?
 
We have a brand of iced coffee here in Australia who came up with this rather brilliant ad:

 
I was reading a thread on a page for Leyland in Facebook. It quotes an old article about wells underneath a pub The Gables.

Someone mentioned that a part of the street Towngate used to be called Damp Street. A poster said that her grandad was a 'well engineer'. His name was George Damp.
 
Adolf Hitler wins election.

A politician named after Adolf Hitler has won a seat at a Namibian election - but says he has no plans for world domination.

36391984-9013447-image-m-4_1606987866505.jpg


Adolf Hitler Uunona was elected with 85 per cent of the vote in the former German colony, which is still home to a small German-speaking community and where a number of streets, places and people still bear German names.

After winning the seat on the ticket of the ruling SWAPO party - which has ruled Namibia since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 - the politician told Bild that he had 'nothing to do with' Nazi ideology.

'My father named me after this man. He probably didn't understand what Adolf Hitler stood for,' his namesake said.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...named-Adolf-Hitler-wins-election-Namibia.html

maximus otter
 
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