And Now, The Moment You've All Been Waiting For...
A couple of days ago, I wrote this post about nicknames, and how I got a lot of mine.
I left three, however, for people to guess. I had intended to answer in a comment with the answers, and then refer all those who guessed to that comment.
Instead of doing that, I decided I'd just go ahead and create a whole new post with the answers, and then tag those who attempted to guess so they have a chance to see the real answers.
One person actually got one of the answers right. @gillianpearce answered correctly that my third mystery nickname—Frizz—came from playing Frisbee.
The other participants included @davemccoy, @themanwithnoname and @fullcoverbetting.
Here are the explanations, along with the answers to the remaining two, starting with nickname No. 3.
FRIZZ—I like to play Frisbee. This was before Frisbee golf, and Frisbee football wasn't quite a thing yet. So, two or more of us would be out in the common area between the dorms and the closest school cafeteria playing Frisbee. I liked to attempt trick throws and run down errant passes. I like to think I was good, but not Pro level by any means. One of the Freshman basketball players saw me out throwing the Frisbee with these other guys and dubbed me Frizz. Anytime he would see me after that, that's what he called me. I don't remember it catching on with much of anyone else. :)
KOZ—I went to BYU the same year the varsity football team won their one and only National Championship. A group of dorm mates would go to one of the practices fields on campus to play football. I ended up making some catches during one of the first games we played and people started calling me Koz. There was a wide receiver who played for the varsity team whose name was Glen Kozlowski (same first name, spelled the same way), so that's where the nickname came from. As a side note, I actually had a Communications class with the real Koz, but I'm pretty sure he never knew who I was. :)
SMOKEY or SMOKY—My Junior year in high school, I was one of the starters on the junior varsity basketball team. By this time, most of the better players were splitting time between the varsity and the junior varsity. I wasn't one of those, so I got to play more JV ball. It was towards the end of the season, and we were playing some league team on our court, and I got a hot hand. I've always been a streaky kind of shooter, so when it's happening, it's happening, and when it's not, it's really not. I put in 19 points during the second quarter of that game and our head coach started calling me 'Smokey', presumably, because my shot was on fire. :)
I ended up with 29 points that game. The opposite team actually went to a diamond-and-one zone to either try to keep the ball out of my hands or to double team me when I did get it. Their coach at halftime had designated me "The Shooter" so, I had two nicknames simultaneously.
I actually have a certificate for Most Improved player that says, Glen 'Smoky' Albrethsen on it. :)
Image courtesy of Glen Anthony Albrethsen
And there you have it. Thank you to everyone who tried to guess and to those who actually told me about their own nicknames.
I like all of them. You probably answered this but which one of those nick name of yours stuck? Or do you have a new one now?
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None of my nicknames I've had over the years have endured. These ones were pretty much confined to the time and place, including the Smoky one, since I didn't really play much my Senior year, there wasn't really an opportunity to keep the nickname going. I went from Most Improved Player to Most Inspirational Player the following year, simply because I would jump up and down at the end of the bench trying to spur on the players on the court. :)
Right now, the only nickname I have is from my wife. She calls me Amor. There's actually another post I link to above to the first post I wrote where the many other nicknames I've had over the years are discussed.
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I have never met or known someone with lots of nicknames haha! You should be nicknamed a man of many names. I have only been named Bestre back in high school meaning I am one of the best of the three.
This reminds me of a practice we have here. There is no scientific explanation or any explanation at all why it works. When a child is sickly and just does not get well, giving a new name to that child will make him well. It could be coincidence but it works.
Also, some kids were given a Christian name and another name derived from the local language, which is more popular than their Christian name.
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Bestre. I like it. So, any three, or like three siblings?
Where is here again? I'm not sure if I even know. It sounds like a pretty fun place, though. I don't think I've ever heard of renaming children if they're sickly or otherwise.
My wife comes from Mexico and she was taught all kinds of things that shouldn't really work but for some reason does. At least enough to keep it going. So, I guess you've seen the renaming help a child get better? That's totally fascinating.
I know some people really dislike their name and so they get it changed. It seems to help them be more positive. Interesting.
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Here is the lovely 7,107 islands full of beautiful mountains and beaches and indigenous people - the Philippines :D
There were three of us then and we are very close. We just called each other best of 1, best of 2 but I am best of the three. Not my idea though.
I haven't had the chance of putting that into practice. I do have friends who were renamed when they were kids because of how sickly they were.
I have a cousin who changed his name. He was named after his father who he absolutely hates.
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Ah, the Philippines. Maybe, one of these days, my wife and I will make it there. I'm always amazed every time I hear about the Philippines just how many people live there, how many languages are spoken, and how pretty things are there, simply because I basically live on the other side of the world, have never been, and don't have any dealings with the islands other than the few people from there I meet. There's just so much to know and learn and see and do, that how could anyone ever have time for it all?
Well, as noted, nicknames are never our idea. If it were up to me, I'd stick with my name and be done with it.
Still a very interesting custom. It's better if it's not necessary, though, since that would mean the child is healthy, which I'm sure is what is preferred. :)
The same with one of the people I was thinking of. I'm not sure if it was his father specifically, or his family as a whole, but he really didn't like them at all. Very sad thing. But he went to the court and got his name changed.
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I hope you can come visit. I am a stranger to my country. I can only speak four of the myriad languages we have here. I have to at least travel and see what my country has to offer.
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We have a friend who is from Philippines who will be coming back with her husband sometime this year. At one point, he didn't want to go, so my wife was invited for a while. I think that made him jealous or something because he decided he'd go instead. It'll be interesting. I'm not sure how often they've been back since they were married, but he doesn't really like much of anything other than American comfort food. So, we'll see. I think they're planning to stay in hotels in different places, so maybe he'll find something to his liking. :)
My wife hadn't really seen much of Mexico outside of a small circle of states before we were married. We ended up going to all kinds of places after that. She said exactly the same thing. It's sad, but you get caught up in life and maintaining life that seeing what your own country has to offer gets lost in the mix.
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Fantastic, I love that you had a few nicknames and none of them were derogatory. I never really had any nicknames that stuck personally. That's probably a good thing though, nicknames in Australia can often be a little rude.
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Yeah. Nicknames can be pretty tricky. Good thing you escaped without one, then. :)
This post is actually a companion to a first post where I talked about all the other nicknames I've had (at least the ones I can remember). There's a link to it above if you're interested.
I did have some that weren't as complimentary. Not sure if derogatory fits the bill, though my sons did have a lot of fun at my expense with the one they gave me a few years ago. Some of the rest I received were when I was very young and so they were more like nicknames you give a small child.
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very cool... I was wondering how you got any of them... Frizz and smokey could've been guessed (eventually), but no way could someone have guess Koz from you going to BYU and having a star reciever named that... lol
This was a very creative set of posts... Its nice to know something about you Smokey! :)
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Yeah, Koz was super tough. @gillianpearce actually was heading in the right direction with it though. Thanks for the kind words. I was hoping to come up with something people could participate on, and some of you did, so that's good. I thought @lynncoyle1 might give it a go, too, but she must be busy.
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Dammit, I missed it Glen! I take one day off and I'm still playing catch-up :)
These nicknames are all a lot better than Trivia or Trivial haha I'm stickin' with Smoky from now on!
Once again, please accept my sincerest apologies for missing this fun post Smoky! :)
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This is the second one, so not sure if you looped it in, too, but there's many more nicknames on the first post that people have dropped on me over the years. If you haven't already, the link is up towards the top of this post.
No worries. I take a day off (at least) each week, too, so I'm always in catch up mode when Monday starts. This week it took me all of Monday and a good chunk of Tuesday to catch up with comments and then all the posts that were in my feed. It was actually kind of fun, and it gave me something to do the entire time. Hunting for posts to comment on is probably the most time consuming with the least possible rewards, so it was awesome to have so much material available to work with.
Now, do you have any nicknames you would like to share? I've been asking people to do that, too, along with an explanation of how they got the nickname(s).
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I did miss the first one, so I'll go check it out. I ended up taking today off too because my computer decided to have a meltdown! I was using it, everything was fine, I went to get a drink, came back and nothing !! It took me the better part of the day, thanks to Brian's help, to get it going again, unfortunately, I lost all kinds of files etc. Oh well, that's the way things go.
I never did get any nicknames now that I think of it. I'm not sure why that is?
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Wow. Sorry to hear about the computer. @themanwithnoname, @osmosis, @simplymike, @gillianpearce and someone else whose name escapes me have all had or continue to have some kind of computer problems within the last couple of months. Connection: you're all on Steemit. Maybe I should back away slowly before something happens to mine.
That's not fun when files disappear.
The puppy didn't start playing on it, did he?
What did Brian do to get it working again?
No nicknames. Well, I think I had enough for about five people, so maybe you didn't get any because I got more than my fair share. I doesn't help when your last name is hard to pronounce and spell, while your first name is one syllable and super easy to say.
For the record, I think it was my Dad who would call me What's-his-face when he couldn't get my name out fast enough. It was kind of funny, though, since my Mom would just go through the three kids' name until she came up with the right one. Never started the list out the same way. :)
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Yes, back away very slowly. I don't know what Brian did; I chose to go for a walk because he is far from enjoyable when he's working on something like that, and in a lot of discomfort today. It was best for me to return when the problem was fixed and I could dole out all of my gushy appreciation to him then ;)
haha nope, the puppy was with me!
I think all of our moms just yelled out lists of names until they got to the right kid. So funny! It is a mom thing for sure...I know because I did it too, and included the dog's name when things were really crazy!
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So sorry to hear that your computer had issues. I thought that you had been on a little less than normal. I know the feeling and it's not fun at all. I'm glad it's working again, but sorry that you lost files. :(
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nicknames are given by people who really know us. it's great @glenalbrethsen
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I believe that's true. In my case, I've had people give me nicknames who didn't know me all that well, too. Some of those nicknames were okay, some of them not-so-much. The ones that are the most meaningful, though, are the ones given to me, as you say, from those who know me best. Thank you. :)
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Right on, man! Thanks for sharing. That's fun that you have so many different names from different times in your life. You can probably tell when you met someone based on the name they call you.
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I probably could, if I still kept in touch with any of them. :) I have no idea where anyone is from high school or college, and I suspect my JV coach may have already passed on. Or not. Just read an article where he was 70 back in 2009 and still coaching JV basketball. Maybe I'll swing by next season and see if he's still there. :)
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I get it. Life happens and people move on. The people you hung out with back in the day aren't necessarily the people that you're going to want to be around now. I know there are people I've known that I grew up and they didn't. I had to leave them behind. It's just the way of things.
Still coaching at 70? Wow. Although that was 9 years ago, but you never know.
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Yeah, he'd be pushing 80, especially next year, but who knows.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, other than I wasn't that social back then, relatively speaking, and since the Internet didn't even exist, let alone Social Media, the only opportunities to keep up with anyone who might want to do the same were through the periodic class reunions that I managed to avoid like the plague. :)
Now, I'm not even sure if they still have them. I haven't received an invitation in a while, and I think the classmate who was organizing them for many years took a break. That was 10 years ago. Maybe more.
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