I used to avoid reading the news because I found it depressing... nowadays, it's hard not to feel not only depressed, but angry, cynical and morally superior. so, I try not to read too much because it gives me a complex, and god knows I have enough of those...
But now work has forced me to become a bit of a "newsie", and a hopeless internet addict. I dig through dozens of articles everyday and my god, the world is interesting! Check it:
I finally caught a This American Life episode I've been eyeing for a while, about a 10-year-old American girl named Sarah York who started a pen pal relationship with Manuel Noriega, right before the US took him down. They maintained a long friendship through letters, and then Noriega invited Sarah down to Panama to visit. My favourite part of the story is the gift exchange during their first meeting- the Yorks brought Noriega a snowglobe, the General gave Sarah a teddy bear in fatigues. That just made me smile.
Onwards.
I read about a guy who calls himself "the Chameleon". Frederic Bourdin is a thirty-something-year-old man who, for the past 15 years, has invented different identities on dozens of occasions, in over a dozen different countries. Usually posing as an abused teenage runaway, Bourdin settled himself into countless youth homes and high schools. Crazier still, he once posed as a American runaway (Bourdin is French), and was taken in by the missing kid's family for 5 months before being discovered as a fraud. His story in The New Yorker is fascinating.
Bourdin's been getting a lot of play since the David Grann article was released, and it's only been a few days. The most interesting part is his own self-hype. Bourdin got up on You Tube and filmed himself talking about nothing in particular, sometimes lip synching songs, sometimes just ranting about his life, ususally with an air of persecution in his voice. His first comment about Grann's article was how pleased he was with the photo of himself. This is a guy who wanted so badly to be someone else. Anyone else. So much so that he lost himself, and just had to keep trading in personalities... And now, because of the article, he finally gets to reclaim his name, and not just be the old him, but be The Notorious Frederic Bourdin. Which is arguably what he was after all along. I wonder if he's going to get sick of himself again...
Finally, before you beat your tormented head against the wall and vent at your parents for having named you Sunny (Asian), Kitty (also Asian), Pizza (my Asian co-worker), Ranger (my Asian cousin from Texas) or Olympic Games (Oly G for short har har ), consider this.
It could have been much worse. You could have been a Number 16 Bus Shelter.
Which, granted, is just about the awesomest name EVER... for everyone BUT that kid.
UNUSUAL NAMES
Legally Blocked:
Yeah Detroit
Stallion
Twisty Poi
Keenan Got Lucy
Sex Fruit
Fat Boy
Cinderella Beauty Blossom
Fish and Chips (twins)
Legally Allowed:
Violence
Number 16 Bus Shelter
Midnight Chardonnay
Benson and Hedges (twins)
But now work has forced me to become a bit of a "newsie", and a hopeless internet addict. I dig through dozens of articles everyday and my god, the world is interesting! Check it:
I finally caught a This American Life episode I've been eyeing for a while, about a 10-year-old American girl named Sarah York who started a pen pal relationship with Manuel Noriega, right before the US took him down. They maintained a long friendship through letters, and then Noriega invited Sarah down to Panama to visit. My favourite part of the story is the gift exchange during their first meeting- the Yorks brought Noriega a snowglobe, the General gave Sarah a teddy bear in fatigues. That just made me smile.
Onwards.
I read about a guy who calls himself "the Chameleon". Frederic Bourdin is a thirty-something-year-old man who, for the past 15 years, has invented different identities on dozens of occasions, in over a dozen different countries. Usually posing as an abused teenage runaway, Bourdin settled himself into countless youth homes and high schools. Crazier still, he once posed as a American runaway (Bourdin is French), and was taken in by the missing kid's family for 5 months before being discovered as a fraud. His story in The New Yorker is fascinating.
Bourdin's been getting a lot of play since the David Grann article was released, and it's only been a few days. The most interesting part is his own self-hype. Bourdin got up on You Tube and filmed himself talking about nothing in particular, sometimes lip synching songs, sometimes just ranting about his life, ususally with an air of persecution in his voice. His first comment about Grann's article was how pleased he was with the photo of himself. This is a guy who wanted so badly to be someone else. Anyone else. So much so that he lost himself, and just had to keep trading in personalities... And now, because of the article, he finally gets to reclaim his name, and not just be the old him, but be The Notorious Frederic Bourdin. Which is arguably what he was after all along. I wonder if he's going to get sick of himself again...
Finally, before you beat your tormented head against the wall and vent at your parents for having named you Sunny (Asian), Kitty (also Asian), Pizza (my Asian co-worker), Ranger (my Asian cousin from Texas) or Olympic Games (Oly G for short har har ), consider this.
It could have been much worse. You could have been a Number 16 Bus Shelter.
Which, granted, is just about the awesomest name EVER... for everyone BUT that kid.
UNUSUAL NAMES
Legally Blocked:
Yeah Detroit
Stallion
Twisty Poi
Keenan Got Lucy
Sex Fruit
Fat Boy
Cinderella Beauty Blossom
Fish and Chips (twins)
Legally Allowed:
Violence
Number 16 Bus Shelter
Midnight Chardonnay
Benson and Hedges (twins)
