Subject: Re: mark by hand (was: the curious phonology of Wisconsin)

[Mark A. Mandel]

FRITZ JUENGLING  <juengling_fritz at SALKEIZ.K12.OR.US> writes:
   >>>>>
 My last name gets slaughtered all the time.  I am used to it and even enjoy
the variations I get.  ALmost no one here at the school can even spell it.
I've gotten about 20 different spellings on various notes.  Oh well.
Pronunciations are just as amusing. My favorite happened recently when I was
in a Chinese restaurant and paid with my plastic.  The lady who took it, who
is from China, informed me "you have a Chinese name--zhueng- ling." Now, if
you were to see me, you would never think I was Chinese. I don't know how
she ever thought I could have gotten a Chinese name, but she was able to
tell me what it means--something like 'trees in the mist' if I remember
correctly.  It's all good:)
 <<<<<

When my sister got divorced for the second time she didn't want to keep
husband #2's last name, or to go back to husband #1's, or to our father's
last name either, and she didn't know what to do. I suggested that she take
her middle name as last name, and instead of being
        NAME1 NAME2 NAME3
 where NAME3 was one of the unwanted three surnames, be officially and in
everyday use known as
        NAME1 NAME2
 She was pleased with that solution and went with it.

Since her original middle name was Sue, and it is now her last name, I
sometimes refer to her as "my Chinese sister".

-- Mark
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]