wilsongray.com

[Page Stephens]

Wilson,

Try having Page as a first name.

My name is constantly misspelled as Paige and until I got to the point
where I signed myself H. Page I got so much mail addressed to MS, MISS or
MRS Paige Stephens that I finally added the initial before my name which
women rarely use.

Another problem which I once had was the fact that the historian Page Smith
wrote an article critical of my undergraduate advisor's book, and one day
when I entered my advisor's office he called me Mr. Smith.

I once heard that the late Shirley Povich, a reknowned sportswriter and
Maury's father, once was given an award by someone or other as woman of the
year.

I do not know about Wilson but Page as a name has been both a curse and a
blessing. It was a curse when I was growing up and kids would constantly
say, "Turn the page or leaf, Page." but in later years it has made me
distinctive since I am not a John, Dick or Harry.

By the way one of the things which I have noticed among my friends of my
generation -- I am 62 -- is that many of my friends from my childhood whom
we used to call Bob and Dick now tell me to call them Robert and Richard.

Is this a general trend or just peculiar to the people from southern
Illinois of my generation?

I do know that my friends in my hometown from the generation before us
still call themselves Bob or Dick and not Robert or Richard but I do not
know if this is peculiar to this area of the US or not.

Many years ago when I was running a site on The Cleveland freenet I
received a peculiar email which I could not decipher until my wife read it
and told me that the author was trying to hit on me since he assumed I was
female and that she got this type of crap all the time.

Page or should I say H. Page Stephens

> [Original Message]
> From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Date: 3/8/2006 1:28:15 AM
> Subject: wilsongray.com
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      wilsongray.com
>
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---
>
> Did anyone besides me notice that the "Wilson Gray"
> who is the owner of this site is a woman? At the '72
> LSA Summer Institute I met a woman named "Wilsonia,"
> but I think that just plain "Wilson" as a woman's first
> name tops both "Wilsonia" and "Tristan." OTOH, though
> I have known women called "Mason" and "Stewart," I
> don't count them because they were actually "Mary Mason
> Surname" and "Mary Stewart Surname."
>
> -Wilson Gray
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org