When miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell were rescued after 2 weeks trapped underground Australian country musician Colin Buchanan emailed ABC radio presenter Richard Glover to suggest that he play a Buddy Guy song about an American mining rescue. Glover told him that he would prefer an Aussie song and Buchanan was the man to write it. This was at 2pm. By 5.30 Buchanan had written the song, recorded it on his laptop and delivered it to the radio station.
I have heard the song a few times since and when I heard it today it occurred to me that Brant Webb and Todd Russell probably never expected their names to be in the lyrics of a song. I got to thinking about strange ways in which one’s name can live on:
landmarks named after you
buildings
diseases
cities etc.
My favourite for ironic reasons is Tourette’s syndrome because it is correctly Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome as Georges Gilles de la Tourette’s surname was Gilles de la Tourette. Lazy Americans shortened it and now the usage is universal.
Or maybe the Heimlich Maneuver, what kid grows up thinking I hope they name a maneuver after me?
In the sports world, you know you’re big stuff when you are coaching in a building named after you. Dean Smith of North Carolina basketball and Eddie Robinson of Grambling football are two who come to mind. Having a field house or stadium named for you after you retire or pass away is nice; going to work in a 50,000 seater with your name on the outside in six foot letters is the shit.
If you have an unusual name, it’s when you suddenly notice dozens of infants who have been named after you. Alternatively, when you single-handedly stop parents from using a once-popular name (such as the sharp decline in the name Richard after Nixon was impeached).
