Guys named "Buzz"

[Wilson Gray]

"... and his pal, Roscoe Sweeney."

-Wilson

On 2/26/07, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Guys named "Buzz"
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>
> "Buzz" Aldrin is actually Edwin Eugene, but distinguished forensic psychologist Dr. J. Buzz von Ornsteiner is alleged to be the real McCoy.
>
>   I say "alleged" only because "Dr. Buzz," as they call him on Court TV, began his career as a dancer, then graduated to roles in distinguished films such as _Zombie Death House_, _Slash Dance_, and _Robot Holocaust_. Not a minute too soon, he earned five graduate degrees, including a Ph.D., by 1999.  (He was one of the few M.A.'s in the cast of _Deadly Reactor_, in which he played the coveted role of "Hog's Man Green Eyes.")
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>   One should remain cautious, then, in accepting that Dr. von Ornsteiner's forename of choice was officially bestowed by his parents, a psychologist and a former parole officer. Being born in Reno in the '60s may have increased the likelihood, however.
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>   The above information, though none of the interpretation, comes from Wiki-Waki, which may contain input from Dr. Buzz himself: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._J._Buzz_Von_Ornsteiner
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>   The article asserts that Dr. von Ornsteiner had his BA at the age of fifteen.
>
>   Besides being the nickname of astronaut Aldrin, the front-name "Buzz" is most notably borne by cartoon astronaut Buzz Lightyear, born 1995: http://www.toonopedia.com/lightyer.htm.  This alone may ensure that "Buzz" will be the birth-certificate moniker of more humans, including perhaps some females, in the future.
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>   The earliest "Buzz" I know of was U.S. Navy pilot Buz [sic] Sawyer, the cartoon hero who, beginning in late 1943, piloted his TBF Avenger dive bomber through blue Pacific skies in search of the wily Japanese.  Sawyer's name was doubly appropriate because it suggested "Buzzsaw" on the one hand and connoted aeronautical and aerobatical "buzzing" on the other. The aerobatic sense of "buzz" is unrecorded by HDAS before 1944; thus the nickname "Buzz," as applied to men surnamed "Sawyer," may be older than the strip.  (A web search turns up plenty, though all seem to be post-war.)  On the other hand, Texas cartoonist (you reading this, Barry?) Roy Crane (1901-1977) is unlikely to have titled his comic strip with anything so mundane.
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>   The possibility that druggie parents of the '60s and beyond may have officially named the occasional kid "Buzz" for other reasons remains open.
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>   JL
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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-Sam'l Clemens

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