# origin of your handle **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 16, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817 "2001-02-16T23:12:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MrVisible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/46a35a/32.png) [@MrVisible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrVisible)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/61 "2001-02-19T17:55:31Z")
It comes from my special mutant ability. Most photons just bounce right off me. ---
**Author:** ![Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Tommy\_the\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommy_the_Cat)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/62 "2001-02-19T17:58:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > \*\*Bonus points to the first to correctly cite the origin of ‘Maskman’. \*\* Well, DUH! Tonto called The Lone Ranger that, like all the time.😉 ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/63 "2001-02-19T18:07:54Z")
…Not quite. Hint: The name ‘Maskman’ was used to avoid a lawsuit, while poking much fun at a beloved icon. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Tommy the Cat \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Tranquilis \* > > \*\*Bonus points to the first to correctly cite the origin of ‘Maskman’. \*\* > > Well, DUH! Tonto called The Lone Ranger that, like all the time.😉 \*\* _NEXT_…! ---
**Author:** ![Melpomene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/0ea827/32.png) [@Melpomene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melpomene)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/64 "2001-02-19T18:47:34Z")
Melpomene, means “Songstress” but is the muse of Tragedy. ---
**Author:** ![idiotboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@idiotboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/idiotboy)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/65 "2001-02-19T19:21:36Z")
**Idiot Boy Cafe** , a 24/7 coffee shop located just north of Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio, was my home for a few years. I paid rent for a place across the street…but spent more time in the shop, writing music, poems & stories, playing chess, spades & euchre, and making tons of friends. So, since most of my friends knew exactly where to find me…I became “the Idiotboy” The place has been closed for 3 years now…I sure miss it. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/66 "2001-02-19T19:48:59Z")
**Jet Jaguar** is an Ultraman-like robot from the movie “Godzilla vs. Megalon”. I picked it up when I used to frequent the MST3K newsgroup, and for consistency purposes it became my standard online handle. ---
**Author:** ![keeper0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b19c9b/32.png) [@keeper0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/keeper0)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/67 "2001-02-19T20:10:30Z")
I chose my handle because I was trying to get laid. 😃 Three or four years ago, I decided that I wasn’t meeting enough women as a graduate student in mechanical engineering. My solution was to try out Yahoo’s Personal Ads, and I needed an alias. I wanted something that would hopefully sound appealing to any lovely ladies out there, but also have a benign interpretation. I settled on Keeper, because a) I play goalkeeper in soccer every Sunday b) I wanted to insinuate to women that I am a fella worth “keeping.” Keeper was taken, so I added the 0 since that’s the number on the back of my soccer jersey. Since then, it has become my standard alias on the web even when not chasing women. Though I am so impressed by some of the names on the boards here (Sue Dunym and Czarcasm being good examples) that I am kicking around the idea of an upgrade. FTR: I had some lovely dates with a few women, but nothing significant grew out of it. ---
**Author:** ![Winnowill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4491bb/32.png) [@Winnowill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnowill)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/68 "2001-02-19T20:12:59Z")
Because I’m a doofus, and a testiment to the wisdom of lurking before you post. I registered without ever having read the SDMB, and, as a result, it never even occurred to me that I could have a nifty nickname. jadailey is for Julie Anne Dailey. I also don’t know why I didn’t use caps. If I had known better, I’d be Winnowill. But, since I’ve had this one this long, I might as well keep it. It sure is boring, though. Sigh. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/69 "2001-02-26T14:14:52Z")
javaman is a tribute to two things in my life that make me all warm and fuzzy. One is coffee as some people might suspect. The other is the quest for the Java Ape Man by Eugene Dubois. I don’t know why but there is something fascinating about a medical doctor joining the Dutch Army and getting himself posted to the East Indies, all so he can search for the Missing Link, whose fossils he is certain lie buried there somewhere. After one or two digging seasons he found what he was after–an exceedingly primitive skullcap and a couple of other odds and ends. In accordance with contemporary standards of taxonomy, a new fossil meant a new species, and so…\*\*\*Pithecanthropus erectus! \*\*\* [Dramatic music]…yes, it was the Quest for the Java Ape Man. Shuffling along the forest floor on the very edge between Man and Beast, his vocabulary limited to a few grunts…wondering which way he should evolve![End dramatic music] Since then it’s been pretty well established that the J. man was human after all, and not an ‘ape-man’. But Dubois never really accepted that idea. Among other things, he made his sixteen-year-old son model for a statue that he created of the ape-man, and even erected a little monument by the Trinil River in Java, where he discovered the fossils. The marker is just a little stone marker with the letters _P.e._ and an arrow pointing the way. ---
**Author:** ![bwanasimba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/53a042/32.png) [@bwanasimba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bwanasimba)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/70 "2001-02-26T14:33:09Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by AlbertRose \* > **Albert is my last name. My grandfather (Tom) grew fine, fine roses – so fine, in fact, that he earned a good reputation in his community (Macon, GA). The best rose is an Albert Rose!** How coincidental is this? My grandfather’s name was Albert, his favourite flower was the rose, and he cultivated some outstanding flowers too! But that was the UK. Anyways, I was having some “life issues” I needed to deal with and one night I dreamed that I was wrestling with a lion. I killed it with my bare hands (a la Masai warrior) and remembered a phrase I’d read in Hemingway’s “Green Hills of Africa” - _Bwana Simba_ which roughly translated from Swahili means _Master of the Lions_ but in the context in which it was used (Hemingway bagging a massive lion) meant _Lion Killer_. I took the dream as a sign that I could overcome my difficulties (and I did) and so **bwanasimba** was born in 1995. ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/71 "2001-02-26T15:12:45Z")
Well, I used to be a lot crabbier than I am now. But really, this is for my old roommate Mark, who was about 70 years old from the day he was born. You know what I mean? Crotchety, irascible, independent, set in his ways, that sort of thing. God I love the man. I really miss him and we don’t see enough of him these days now that he’s in med school and we’re doing the family thing. So while this handle refers to me, it’s in honor of him, who would wear it so much better than I would if only he were here. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/72 "2001-02-26T17:02:18Z")
## \*\*quote: ## Originally posted by _AlbertRose_ Albert is my last name. My grandfather (Tom) grew fine, fine roses—so fine, in fact, that he earned a good reputation in his community (Macon, GA). The best rose is an Albert Rose! Originally posted by _bwanasimba_ How coïncidental is this? My grandfather’s name was Albert, his favourite flower was the rose, and he cultivated some outstanding flowers too! But that was the UK.\*\* Well, while we’re throwing coïncidences around, I guess I’ll mention that _my_ grandfather’s name was also Albert, and that his favorite song was a Polish folk song about flowers blooming in May. Also, he had rose bushes in his back yard. They might have been his favorite flower; I don’t know. He also grew shallots. As to my handle: it comes from the main character in Jerzy Kocinski’s novel _Being There_. I used to sign with a slight variation on it, calling myself K. Chauncey Gardener, but I simplified it to Chance, which is how I sign my posts on [this board](http://www.phlog.net), where I’ve been a regular off and on since 1996, depending on whether I have net access or not. When I came here, Chance was already taken, so I came up with this variation. _Being There_ was made into a movie starring Peter Sellers as Chance. It’s pretty good, but then, if it has Peter Sellers in it, that’s pretty much a given. ---
**Author:** ![Zanshin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e274bd/32.png) [@Zanshin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zanshin)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2001, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/73 "2001-02-26T22:04:40Z")
The story of my nom de plume isn’t near as interesting as most folks’ on this thread. Mine comes from my adoration of the Cartoon Network show ‘Dexter’s Laboratory’. One of the sketches on that show involves a sendup of superhero cartoons, with heroes such as Major Glory (the All-American red-white-and-blue guy), Val Hallan (the Norse god of 80’s hair bands), and the Infraggable Krunk – their version of the Hulk. Kinda took a shine to the big gray guy, so the name stuck – I use it when online gaming, too (Counterstrike and UT). ---
**Author:** ![White\_Queen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/898d66/32.png) [@White\_Queen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/White_Queen)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/74 "2001-02-27T00:03:07Z")
The White Queen is my favorite character in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass. She is a little scattered and not nearly as bossy as the Red Queen. I can tell you that Squooshed made his name up. It’s one of his favorite words. It’s basically a conjugate of squished. ---
**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/75 "2001-02-27T00:24:15Z")
It’s my name. [sub]Yeah, I know it’s boring[/sub] Zev Steinhardt ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2001, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817/76 "2001-02-27T00:27:57Z")
Cuz it’s a really good beer, and it’s an awesome name for a beer. Also, seemed fitting cuz I’m a guy which equals dog to most, at least those who know me, and the turbo part? Well… let’s just say that… never mind, better left unsaid, at least by me. 🙂 Sue Duhnym = Pseudonym? Oh for the love of Pete… I’m not even gonna say what I thought it was. That’s why I suck at “guess the personal license plate” game. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-your-handle/54817.md?page=3)