A Bit Better

As plagues go, this one is rather mild. It's kinda like Potsie Weber -- you can still function while it's there, but it annoys the heck out of you and you wish it would just go away. My head is still a bit stuffy and there's an occasional cough...but I ought to be able to get some work done.

Speaking of Potsie, several things got me thinking about nicknames. My college roommate and best friend was in town yesterday, and I was able to briefly get together with him and our other old buddy, Steve Smith. Those were the two guys I hung out with most during my formative years, and they both figure prominently in many of the crazy tales of youth that are chronicled in my autobiography. (No, it's not finished yet. I'll let you know when it's for sale. But thanks for asking.) Anyway, we called Smith "Smitty", which makes sense, or sometimes "Winslow", which is his middle name -- so there's a certain logic to that. But my old roommate goes by Mickey (even though his name is actually "Grant"), and his nickname on our old swim team was "The Fat Man".

Obviously, some nicknames make perfect sense. For example, the fellow pictured here wore grass-colored pants so often that he eventually became known as "Mr. Green Jeans". But others aren't necessarily obvious. I have no idea where "Potsie" came from, nor why the goofy kid on "What's Happening" was called "Rerun". And in fact, the actor who portray Mr. Green Jeans had his own nickname -- his real name was Hugh Brannum, but he went by "Lumpy".

No, don't jump ahead quite yet -- the answer to today's contest has nothing to do with nicknames, or the word "lumpy". But yes, it did kinda get me thinking about this whole nickname thing. My question for you is this: What is your favorite TV or movie character nickname? Is it Doogie? Bones? Granny? What?

Anyway, as I mentioned, that whole discussion has nothing to do with this puzzle. The question here is: What do these guys have in common?



On a completely different subject--Tomorrow is the first day of the COMSA State Championship Swim meet. I sure hope I feel better by then. I'm swimming all the long events, and it wouldn't be fun to be coughing throughout the races. Ugh.

But even if I'm still not up to speed, it will be enjoyable to watch the others compete, and to support my studly teammates in their events. I'll try to take some good photos and will report the results here.

In the meantime, I hope you have avoided plagues of any type, and are feeling spectacularly healthy. Have a great day!