The passing of, um, Something Something Aday (I don’t remember his whole birth name, what, you want me to get hung up on trivia at a time like this?) has saddened the world. Meat Loaf. Two separate words, both capitalized. Not “Meatloaf”. Please show some respect and learn to write it correctly, now that it’s too late.
There are others you need to try to get right while we’re at it. The boy-man who lives in a playhouse? That’s Pee-wee Herman, capital P, e, e, hyphen, small w, e, e. Not “Pee Wee” or Peewee. The Amazing guy who swings on a web? Spider-Man. Also with a hyphen in there. Why does he need a hyphen? Don’t know, don’t care. Try to pay attention.
In the jazz world, we have Thelonious Monk. Don’t leave out the U! And Pharoah Sanders. Tricky, because the word for those kings in ancient Egypt is spelled “Pharaoh” - see the difference? I think the musician spells it better.
One more and I’ll leave you alone. President Harry S Truman. There’s no period after the S. In fact, as I understand it, the S is not an initial. He just had S for a middle name. I’m sure it drove him and everyone else crazy, trying to explain it. Now you know these things; I hope you’ll do the right thing and if you see anyone making these errors, please do them and us a favor and poke them in the ribs.
I’m exactly like Harry Truman. IRL, “S” without a period is also my legal middle name.
No one cares or tries to correct me. On legal documents, I am careful to write my name as Cairo S Carol but I’ve only had to explain myself on vanishingly rare occasions (maybe 1-2 times in 60+ years).
Note that at the time he was becoming a star, the New York Times referred to him as “Mr. Loaf” at second reference.
Note that Harry S. Truman used a period after the S in his signature if he used the MI at all. Since the person involved has the final say, the period is correct.
It appears that Meat Loaf died of COVID. He reported said "If I die, I die, but I’m not going to be controlled.” I’m sure that was comforting as he was dying.
He might more accurately have said “If I die and infect other people some of whom will also die, and they infect other people some of whom die, and so on and so on, so what? I’m not going to be controlled.”
A grandfather of mine has just a middle initial, no name. He was named after his father, an illegal immigrant from Ireland. His mother did not know his middle name, just the initial F, that is all that is on the birth certificate. 4 years later they hooked up again and she became pregnant again. She found out then is middle name was Files. She never had his birth certificate changed. My uncle was given the middle name Files just so somebody could carry on the name.
Yesterday, on NPR, I heard an old interview with Meat Loaf. The interviewer (Scott Simon, I believe) began by asking “Should I call you Mr. Loaf?” The singer replied with “You can call me Meat.”
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As I recall, Harry Truman’s middle “name” arose as a tribute to two family members whose names began with S. So it does stand for something - two somethings, in fact.
I was in a weed dispensary that had a strain for sale called “Thelonious Funk.” I was shocked to discover that nobody else in the store got the reference.
Crap, I seriously thought I invented that. I stole it from the SNL sketch where Buckwheat (Eddie Murphy) is shot after someone calls out “Mister Wheat!”
Aha! I can claim credit if the Times didn’t do it until 2007. I was a full 20 years ahead of them. Point for me!
My mother’s maiden name began with S. It was an extremely rare name that seems to have been a corruption of some German word. No one could ever spell or pronounce it, and she hated it growing up. But she did want to pass something of her name on to me, so she settled for just S.
I think they left out the period because that would make it look like the “S” was an initial and not the full name. In other words, if I put “S.” as my middle name on legal documents, bureaucrats would say “no, we want your full legal name, not just the initial.”
I don’t know if “S.” would have caused me any problems, but certainly “S” has not.
I’ve heard tales of people who went through their whole military career as “Carol NMI Cairo” (for example), because they have no middle initial yet the personnel database will not accept that. NMI = “No Middle Initial.”
