The "You Can Call Me 'Woodsie' Or You Can Call Me 'LDub!'" Story

It was an ordinary day.  My wife Carol is busy looking up the nicknames of some of the most memorable characters that appeared on The Seinfeld Show.  Hey, you have to remember Yet Kassem, the "Soup Nazi" and the guy whom Elaine gave Tic-Tacks to so she could keep track of him, the "Sidler".  How about the name that George's boss gave him, "Coco", even though he wanted to be called "T-bone".  Then there was the nickname that Kramer called himself and had on his car license plate; "Assman".  And then there was "The Bubble Boy" who lived in a bubble; "Art vanDelay", the George Costanza importer/exporter character; "Buck Naked", who was George's name as a porn star and Elaine's name given to her after she had a Christmas card made, "Nip".  How could anyone whoever watched Seinfeld forget these memorable nicknames?  Do you remember some of the nicknames you gave your friends in high school?  For me there was my neighbor Leon whom we called "Bugsy", because he was...well bugsy and classmate and football player Bob See whom we called "Big Daddy" since he was over 300 pounds and took up two positions on the football field line of scrimmage.  How about nicknames for some of your favorite musicians over the years.  Names like "Piano Man" (Billy Joel), "King of Rock and Roll" (Elvis) and "The Fab Four" (The Beatles) will never be forgotten.  Same goes for those in a variety of sports such as: "The Babe" (George Herman Ruth, Jr.), the "Say Hey Kid" (Willie Mays), the "Splendid Splinter" (Ted Williams), "Sweetness" (Walter Payton), "The minister of defense" (Reggie White), the "Iceman" ( George Gervin), the "Golden Bear" (Jack Nicklaus), "The Answer" (Allen

George Herman "Babe" Ruth

Iverson), "Iron Mike" (Mike Tyson), "Mr. October" (Reggie Jackson), "Stretch" (Willie McCovey), "The Great One" (Wayne Gretzky) and the list goes on and on.  How about nicknames for cities in the USA such as: "The Big Apple" (New York City), "The Windy City" (Chicago), "The City of Brotherly Love" (Philadelphia), "Space City" (Houston), "Chocolate Town" (Hershey, PA) and even "The Red Rose City" (Lancaster, PA).  How about members of your family who might have a special nickname?  We called our daughter Brynn (Brynner), my Aunt Lillian (Tut), my father Paul was known as Hen, our son Paul (Tad), my brother Steve (Little Stevie Woo-Woo) and even my mom Dorothea, whom everyone called Dot.  Hey, I had two nicknames in "Woodsie" and "Biglar".  But, nicknames seem to be on the way out.  Such a shame since a good nickname can tell an entire story about a person or be an endless source of delight or amusement; sometimes good and sometimes bad.  I'm sure you don't recall a pilot whose name was Douglas Corrigan who in 1938 was scheduled to fly from New York to Long Beach, California, but instead ended up in Ireland.  He instantly gained the nickname: Wrong Way Corrigan.   Every generation has popular names to call their children and in my high school class there were quite a few Larry's, so to make it easier to remember, we were all given nicknames.  I instantly became "Woodsie" when I entered Jr. High School one September!  And, you may remember performer Caryn Elaine Johnson who couldn't stop from passing gas on stage so she was given the nickname of Whoopi, as in a whoopee cushion, thus Whoopi Goldberg was born.  Then there was Destiny Hope Cyrus whose father called her Smiley which later morphed into Miley.  And, you can't be a rap star without a nickname.  How about Snoop Dogg whose real name was Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr.  No way would he have been a successful rap star if he was called Calvin!  Same thing for sports stars such as the ones I already listed above.  And then there was pitcher Marc Rzepscynski whose consonants-clogged name caused his teammates to call him Scrabble.  Fits across his uniform jersey much easier!  Same goes for politicians.  When "The Terminator", Arnold Schwarzenegger, became Governor of California, he became known as "The Governator."  How about when President William Henry Harrison died and John Tyler, the Vice-President, became President.  He became known as "His Accidency."  Think you are ready to be called something different?  How about coming up with a nickname for someone you may know.  I still remember when someone called me "Woodsie" for the first time.  During a game of basketball in my back alley.  The name never went away!   It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.