Today I was in an art history class and the term “Clair-Obscur” came up in a lecture about surrealism. I wondered where I had heard the phrase before and then remembered it’s the username of our French friend clairobscur. Up until then I’d had no idea that it was an art term, and just figured it was a witty nickname for someone named Claire (or St. Clair or something of the sort.)
I was also reading the Wikipedia entry for the book Dune (I haven’t read the book but decided to look it up after aborting my viewing of David Lynch’s movie in boredom) and came across the name Muad’Dib. So that’s where he got his name, I thought.
I’m sure some other people here have had these moments. Do you remember any times where you’ve accidentally stumbled across the previously unknown meaning of a Doper’s username?
Yes. While I myself haven’t read any yet, I have gradually become more aware of HP Lovecraft’s stories. There are a number of Dopers whose names I’ve recognized as I encounter references to Lovecraft… though at the moment the only one I can bring to the front of my brain of is Sauron.
Yep. Had a pal who was looking to get a tattoo of an owl and we were flipping through a book of owl pictures and POW up jumped a gorgeous Snowy Owl picture, marked - Nyctea Scandiaca!
I started to explain the significance to my non-Doper friend, but she ran out of interest pretty quick.
My godson’s mother and I have a lively book exchange between the two of us. This past August she lent me Stephen King’s Dark Tower series and I met Roland Deschain.
While browsing through a collection of works by Lewis Carroll, I was surprised to find “Rilchiam” (a combination of “Richard” and “William”) in the introduction to The Hunting of the Snark.
There is a poster named Sentient Meat. I don’t know him/her but the second I read it I knew it was a nick from this story. I found a link to it online a miiiilllyun years ago and I really don’t think I’ve ever read anything else by this author (though I’ve heard of him) I adore this story.
WOW! That is AWESOME! …And extremely well-written. I always thought "Sentient Meat’ referred to that scene in Sartre’s “Nausea” where rotting meat crawled across the sidewalk.
I believe that Clothahump was the name of wizard who happened to be a turtle in a series of books I read many years ago. But it was the wrong way about, i.e., I read the books then happened on the name here much later.
I’m hoping Clothahump will come by and confirm or deny that his user name came from that book series.
Just the other day I saw the episode of Futurama (for the first time) with the Hypno-Toad. I wondered why the name stuck out to me, then I saw that poster’s name a few days later.
FTR Matt Groening says in the commentary that it’s one of his absolute favorite characters on the show.
At one time, there was a poster here with the incredibly awesome name of Filthy Beast of Meat and Hair. I was mightily impressed that the owner could come up with that name on their own.
Many months later, I heard the line uttered by Zim on an episode of Invader Zim (specifically, he says it to Tak in the episode, “Tak, The Hideous New Girl”). Somehow, that made it even more awesome.
My husband finally bought season 8 of the Simpsons, and as I was puttering away on my computer here in the corner, I overheard Krusty in the Poochie episode:
“Whatta ya got in mind? Sexy broad? Gangster octopus?”
I glanced up, muttered to my husband that Gangster Octopus was a Doper name, then went back to my etchings.