NEWSWEEK Cover Story: When 'Barry' became Barack

[TeamJordan23]

When Barry Became Barack
It didn't happen overnight. But in college, the young Barry took to being called by his formal name. What this evolution tells us about him.

It is a long article, so I will just put the link here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/128633

My guess is that he will also be on the new TIME Magazine next week (TIME now comes out in the middle of the week instead of the end of the weekend).

[Up2Late]

1. Interesting, now if someone could please tell me how they get "Peggy" from Margaret?

Some "nicknames" are just bazaar.

[Drunken Irishman]

2. Or Ted from Edward.

[Window]

3. Or Jack from John.

[sniffa]

4. Or Dubya from Douchebag

[ginnyinWI]

9. LOLOL!

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Window]

10. LMAO! Good one.

:rofl:

[Emit]

12. LOL!

:spray:

[IDemo]

32. Douzy!

[berni_mccoy]

35. LOL Sniffa Rules!

[helderheid]

38. YOU OWE ME A NEW KEYBOARD!

:spray:

[NanBo]

42. Post like this

make it all worthwhile! LOL, loveya.

[Up2Late]

13. Or "Sweetums Fabulous Frou Frou-Tummy Tickler"

That's what I got from this "Nickname/Pet name Generator" at this link:

<http://www.links2love.com/nicknames.htm>

[Teaser]

36. Jacques

is a french variant of Jean (John).

Johannes (Latin John) went to Johan(s) to something like Jochans (hard "ch" like Scottish "loch") to Jacques.
As in most French, the final consonant was dropped except in unusual circumstances.

[melody]

5. That one has always stumped me, too

Or "Polly" for "Mary"

Or "Patsy" for "Martha

"Barry" for "Barack" ain't a stretch. lol

[Window]

6. Some people who name their children are bizarre. I know triplets named

Sam, Sammy and Samuel. Go figure.

[SoxFan]

7. Dick

Richard.
Rich? Yep.
Rick? Okay.
Dick? Huh?

[PetraPooh]

11. That one's easy, they premonitioned that someday an accurate nickname

would be needed for Richard Cheney. (I'm assuming his given name was Richard and not Dick, perhaps I'm wrong)

[starroute]

26. There were different nickname conventions at different periods

In the late medieval to early modern period nicknames were generally shortened versions of the full name, but there was also a lot of fiddling with the consonants. Edward > Ned. Oliver > Noll. Richard > Dick. William > Will. Henry > Harry. John > Jack. Elizabeth > Bess. Mary > Moll.

By the 18th century, though, simpler shortenings begin to show up. Thomas > Tom. Samuel > Sam. Benjamin > Ben.

The late 18th to early 19th centuries brought a slew of women's nicknames that still fiddled with the consonants but all ended in -y. Dorothy > Dolly. Mary > Polly. Sarah > Sally. Margaret > Peggy.

Sometime in the 19th century, nicknames for little boys ending in -y or -ie also began to show up, like Eddie or Charlie or Johnnie. More grown-up nicknames still tended to use modification, as in James > Jim, William > Bill, or Edward > Ted -- but these were paired with Jimmie, Billy, or Teddy for little boys.

The late 19th century brought a final wave of eccentric women's nicknames, like Mary > Mamie, Sarah > Sadie, Elizabeth > Betty

That was about the end of it, though. In the modern, streamlined 20th century, the rules for producing nicknames became a lot more standardized and less inventive. We're just not as creative as our ancestors, I guess.

[Peregrine Took]

33. Maybe its an Irish thing. There is an Irish name "Pegeen" that may be a

translation of "Margaret." My godmother was a "Margaret" who was called "Peggy."

[Kahuna]

34. Or Dick from Richard?

:shrug:

[PetraPooh]

8. Back to the quote from the article; I don't think anyone can "tell" anything

from this evolution with any accuracy except Obama himself.

[jackson_dem]

14. Has Newsweek endorsed Obama yet?

They have shilled for him for over three years.

[Blue-Jay]

17. NEWSWEEK IS DEAD TO ME!!!

(hey....should we start calling is "NewsWeak yet? I didn't get the memo...)

[Up2Late]

19. Thought that was their name?

It's not?:evilgrin:

[cali]

18. oh poor, poor bitter little you

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[slinkerwink]

40. thank you for kicking the thread with your comment!

:pals:

[rzemanfl]

15. Judging only from how long it takes the pages to load, it seems

like a lot of people are reading that article.

[Up2Late]

16. This Nickname/Pet name generator says, Barack Obama = "Kissable Poodle-Lovey Cakes"

:spray:

<http://www.links2love.com/nicknames.htm>

[Critters2]

28. That's what we call him at church. When he bothers to show up. nt

[movonne]

20. When did newsweek became "the national enquirer."

[Up2Late]

21. I think it was January 20, 2001

Pretty much the day all American "news" died.

[BeyondGeography]

22. Nothing totally new apart from some tidbits...I think Richard Wolffe gets along well with Obama

and is going to make a lot of money writing a book about this campaign.

A great read.

K&R

[Drunken Irishman]

23. I liked the final paragraph, very moving.

[BeyondGeography]

I liked this as well

==He lost touch with many of his old Oxy friends. Eric Moore says he had no contact with Obama for about 15 years. Then on a visit to Chicago, Moore was walking through a park when he saw a fund-raising table with an OBAMA placard. He walked up to the woman behind the table and asked if she was promoting "Barack Obama." She said yes, and he left his card with her in hopes she'd pass it along to his old friend. The two reconnected after that. "He was so genuine and unchanged," Moore says. "That's what he is every time I see him, except that now he doesn't wear the flip-flops." Moore says that he's amazed that his friend is on the possible verge of becoming president. "It's not like he came from a family like the Kennedys or the Bushes," Moore says. "He's a self-made man."==

[BeyondGeography]

24. I liked this as well

==He lost touch with many of his old Oxy friends. Eric Moore says he had no contact with Obama for about 15 years. Then on a visit to Chicago, Moore was walking through a park when he saw a fund-raising table with an OBAMA placard. He walked up to the woman behind the table and asked if she was promoting "Barack Obama." She said yes, and he left his card with her in hopes she'd pass it along to his old friend. The two reconnected after that. "He was so genuine and unchanged," Moore says. "That's what he is every time I see him, except that now he doesn't wear the flip-flops." Moore says that he's amazed that his friend is on the possible verge of becoming president. "It's not like he came from a family like the Kennedys or the Bushes," Moore says. "He's a self-made man."==

[1776Forever]

27. Reading about the flip-flops brought back something about Hawaiians......

Since Barack grew up in his teen years in Hawaii this is so typical of the Hawaiians I have known. I remember them saying all the time if something happen that threw them off course "No big deal!". I think that is what Barack does a lot. He just moves on with dignity and purpose. When it is a Big Deal like the race question he hits a Grand Slam! I think we could learn from that. Don't sweat the small stuff - save it for the BIG hurdles in life and just walk over the mountain as Norman Vincent Peale wrote in his Positive Thinking book.

:grouphug:

[BeyondGeography]

29. Here's some more Hawaiian values

==Obama, who loves to body surf, now is riding the biggest wave of his life but is cautious about the future. "If you're on a wave, you ride it," he says. "You figure at some point you're going to get a mouthful of sand. It doesn't last forever."==

http://starbulletin.com/2004/07/28/editorial/editorials.html

[Up2Late]

31. Man, I really loved body-surfing when I was about 20, living in California...

...I still remember one time when I was on top of about a six-foot wave and the water below me was just gone, looking down at nothing but gravel...Man, good times!B-)

[ebdarcy]

25. I think it's a very good article.

We all go through that period of trying to find ourselves, don't we? I know some of us go through it more than once. I liked the part about his dad and the Waikiki bar. Also the part about his wardrobe. He looks so GQ all the time, it's funny to think of him in flip flops and surfer attire.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. K&R

Thanks for posting! :thumbsup:

[stillcool]

37. Nice article...

can't wait to see what someone will take out of it and twist to mean something else. I'm having problems with the audacity to hope. It's so much easier to give in to the negativity.

[Up2Late]

41. O.K., how about this false assumption from the first page...

...that I find very offensive as "an average white person."

"...He could, for a time, shrug off Wright's more incendiary views, in part because he knew that whites, in their private worlds, often expressed or shrugged off bigotry themselves...,"

I find that to be an extremely arrogant assumption for anyone my age (and BO's age) to make, let alone a National politician running for the nomination of the Democratic Party, and that's only the first page.

Maybe I'm just an "exceptional white person" (I don't consider myself exceptional), but don't remember ever being in a situation when I "expressed or shrugged off bigotry."

If and when I find myself among bigots, I leave that situation without hesitation. There is no way that I would have remained a member of a church where the preacher preached hate and racial division, and I have never been a member of a "whites only" clubs and would not want to be a member of such a club, even if they would take me. I do not know and am not friends with any "white" or any other skin tone bigots, as far as I know.

But hey, maybe I'm NOT "an average white person" because everyone I know, knows not to talk like that around me.:mad:

[stillcool]

43. exactly...

I don't know who you think you are to judge another person's life experiences. I myself was a foster child so I know exactly what it feels like to not belong anywhere in this world. I can't imagine what it's like to have a mother and a father, and grow up with roots of any kind. I've shrugged off a lot of things, but I don't blame people for the shit they did. I had to learn to understand why. It must be nice to have gotten to your age without having to learn that we human beings are all alike. You really are not as superior as you believe yourself to be.

[bhikkhu]

46. Perhaps you are both exceptional and fortunate

I grew up in a family devoid of racial values - it didn't even occur to me until years after grade school that I had had many "hispanic" friends - named Gracia, Martinez, Serrano, etc. But then in later life I have worked consistently among people who casually indulge in racist comments. Hispanics are the routine target, and I consistently defend the "personhood" and common humanity we have with everyone. Blacks are also a target, though more of laughter than hatred. That I also object to...leaving the situation would mean leaving my employment, which is possible. But then the next employment would likely be the same. I am more confident that incremental change is possible. If every time a hateful thing is said it is countered by the opposite, there can be change. If every tasteless bit of humor is balanced by a bit of education about the sameness of our conditions, there can be progress.

Leaving the situation removes some of the possibility to influence people.

[me b zola]

39. K&R

:thumbsup:

[tishaLA]

44. excellent.

recommended

[chascarrillo]

45. NEWSFLASH: Mikey Henderson, 13, of Moscow, ID, now wants people to call him "Michael".

Film at 11.