# Someone finally takes on Oprah **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 31, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266 "2009-05-31T16:40:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/21 "2009-06-01T07:51:13Z")
I have no problems believing that someone could misspell a baby’s name on the birth certificate. My middle name is “Philip.” My father’s middle name is “Phillip.” I was supposed to get the same middle name as him, since I’m a “Jr.” However, my father is a bad speller. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/22 "2009-06-01T07:57:27Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I knew a chick in high school whose name was Emilye. Her parents had named her after a character in a film… who it later turned out was actually Emiline. > > She was 13 by then and she stuck with it. And then there’s Condoleezza Rice, whose mother, being a musician, thought she was naming her baby “Con dolcezza,” which means “with sweetness.” The difference, of course, is that Condoleezza doesn’t spell anything backwards like Oprah does. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/23 "2009-06-01T08:01:06Z")
Azzeelodnoc, the forgotten Marx brother. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/24 "2009-06-01T08:05:44Z")
The OP’s article reminds me of C.S. Lewis’s [“Screwtape Proposes a Toast”](http://www.benjaminschool.org/Nursing/syllabus/Second%20Year/first%20semester/Syllabi/ScrewtapeProposesaToastbyC_S_Lewis.htm): > [@](#): > > As the great sinners grow fewer, and the majority lose all individuality, the great sinners become far more effective agents for us. Every dictator or even demagogue – almost every film star or crooner – can now draw tens of thousands of the human sheep with him. They give themselves (what there is of them) to him; in him, to us. There may come a time when we shall have no need to bother about individual temptation at all, except for the few. Catch the bellwether, and his whole flock comes after him. Even if one is an atheist, I imagine it must be kind of disturbing to see so many people turning into sheep trotting such a bellwether. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/25 "2009-06-01T12:33:18Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I have to agree with you here…the weight thing is the best way I can identify with her. And I believe that her name was a misspelling of Orpah…I have no problem with THAT part! Here’s my problem with that story: > > You decide to name your baby Orpah. You fill out all the forms, you take your baby home, and tell everyone her name is Orpah. You call her Orpah, you teach her how to say her name when she starts speaking, everyone calls her Orpah. Years later, you need her birth certificate for something…maybe when she’s 16 and getting her license. So you get a copy…and discover that the spelling on the document is Oprah. Do you then stop calling her by the name you’ve called her her entire life…the one you picked out because you love it so? How do you get everyone else to switch? Would you switch your name, if you discovered the birth certificate was misspelled? > > If you named your baby Elsa because you were a great lover of the work of Elsa Lancaster, and you discovered many years later a typo that listed her name as Elisa…would you then change what you call your child to match…even though you’ve never met anyone named Elisa? > > I feel like the story is missing a logical connection between the cause and effect. My mother is a bad speller, she is also horrible at pronouncing names - for her there is no difference between Carolyn and Caroline. Mary and Marie. Marci and Marsha. And she misnamed me. Meant to name me the same thing one of her girlfriends named their daughter, but the combination of “she can’t spell” and “she can’t tell the difference” means I’ve gone by the ‘wrong’ name my whole life. Pretty much exactly the Oprah story. She did just misspell my sister’s middle name. No excuse there since its also HER middle name. But since we never used my sister’s middle name, its always been spelled wrong on official documents, pronouced correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Wakinyan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wakinyan/32/352_2.png) [@Wakinyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wakinyan)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/26 "2009-06-01T13:52:18Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I have no problems believing that someone could misspell a baby’s name on the birth certificate. My middle name is “Philip.” My father’s middle name is “Phillip.” I was supposed to get the same middle name as him, since I’m a “Jr.” However, my father is a bad speller. IIRC this is what happened to the King; his middle name on the birth certificate is “Aron”, but the gravestone says “Aaron”, which is how it was meant to be spelled. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/27 "2009-06-01T14:00:16Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Even if one is an atheist, I imagine it must be kind of disturbing to see so many people turning into sheep trotting such a bellwether. That’s it! Oprah is a cargo cult! “If I watch for long enough, maybe I’ll find the keys to a new car under my couch!” ---
**Author:** ![Brandus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Brandus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brandus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/28 "2009-06-01T15:08:02Z")
> [@ArchiveGuy](#): > > From the article: [The Secret nonsense] This is really quite disturbing. I think Oprah might actually believe that the Secret is the key to good things happening in her life. Actually, being a billionaire with an army of assistants trying to anticipate your every move and engineer a perfect day for you might have something to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/29 "2009-06-01T15:57:40Z")
[Jonathan Franzen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Franzen) doesn’t count? ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/30 "2009-06-01T16:31:13Z")
Last year I was reading Eckhart Tolle’s first book, and found it to insightful and profound. It was endorsed by a number of people whose opinions I really respect. When his 2nd book came out, he was on Oprah’s show, and she was practically fellating him. That really made me wonder if he’s just some new age moron, just by association. Thanks, Oprah. ---
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/31 "2009-06-01T16:33:44Z")
I think this is a good time to repost a link to this amazon review (archived for posterity) about how The Secret saved the life of a prison inmate: [![](https://tinypic.com/images/goodbye.jpg) ](https://tinypic.com/images/goodbye.jpg) Trust me, it’s well worth a read 😃 I’ve never watched Oprah, or read her books. Probably for the best. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/32 "2009-06-01T16:36:54Z")
That was awesome. My fiancee has a copy of _The Secret_ and the urge to surreptitiously burn it is increasing. ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/33 "2009-06-01T16:42:20Z")
The plus side is Oprah helped Obama get into office…then again, she helped Dr Phil rise to his notoriety. On a side note, I have an aunt who is 58 this year. When my grandmother, her mother, died, she got her baby book and her birth certificate which had a different birthday than the one she was celebrating for her whole life. She’s a smart person but can also be quite clueless at the same time. I’m not sure how this bit had slipped by her (oddly enough, even her driver’s license’s birth date was the one she had been celebrating). My grandma had 8 children so it might have been easier to celebrate it on a different date. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/34 "2009-06-01T16:47:01Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > That was awesome. My fiancee has a copy of _The Secret_ and the urge to surreptitiously burn it is increasing. Just show him [this.](http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2TB3S4O5I60) ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/35 "2009-06-01T16:48:21Z")
Oops. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/36 "2009-06-01T16:52:26Z")
😉 \*He’s \*also a _she_. And a rather scrumptious she at that. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/37 "2009-06-01T16:58:19Z")
So what IS the conspiracy theory behind why Oprah is really called Oprah then, if it’s not a misspelling of Orpah? ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/38 "2009-06-01T17:09:14Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > Last year I was reading Eckhart Tolle’s first book, and found it to insightful and profound. It was endorsed by a number of people whose opinions I really respect. When his 2nd book came out, he was on Oprah’s show, and she was practically fellating him. That really made me wonder if he’s just some new age moron, just by association. > > Thanks, Oprah. 😃 My therapist recommended his first book to me last year. Eventually I got around to going to the bookstore, only to find giant displays everywhere extolling his latest as seen on Oprah. I wouldn’t have bought the damn thing but I’d promised I’d read it. I can’t say I was terribly impressed. He seems to have taken a bunch of old, mostly Eastern, ideas and renamed them as his own. FWIW, I also know someone who goes by her “misspelled” name. Her parents left out a letter on the birth certificate. When it was discovered (pretty early), they just went with the name as spelled. I think that was in around 1915 or so (can’t remember her exact age). ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/39 "2009-06-01T17:10:40Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > Just show him [this.](http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2TB3S4O5I60) Holy God! That is the funniest thing I’ve read in weeks. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266/40 "2009-06-01T17:24:00Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I’ve had a hard time feeling warm fuzzies for Oprah ever since I read an article by one of her staffers, who told about the annual torture of buying a Gift (must have been for Christmas) for Oprah. There was intense competition among the staff to find something unique and expensive and clever and expensive. The expectation was there that the gift HAD to be elaborate and expensive, and that staffers would find themselves chastised if Oprah felt they hadn’t spent enough time/money/creativity/money on it. Granted, Oprah’s gifts to them were generous and over the top…but she makes a lot more money than they do. THIS is utterly VILE. I HATE this kind of thing. I’ve been in that position where ‘the boss’ has a birthday or it’s Christmas and the ultra-rich asshole is expecting gifts from his low-paid employees! A token gift won’t do, and it has to be thoughtful, useful, and show creativity??? I think it should be a law that any gifts to ‘the boss’ should be token gifts, or donations to a charity. What does he need bottles of expensive liquor, gold cufflinks, gift certificates to spas for??? He can buy and sell the employees! Once I was approached at the office for a donation to put on a baby shower for his wife!!! I dug out a dollar bill and told the girl collecting to knock herself out, and have a nice time. (It was changed to a luncheon out with the other bigwigs.) Hey, Oprah - I don’t care if you give tons of shit away, you can afford it. Stop expecting your employees to turn themselves inside out to give YOU stuff. (too bad she isn’t reading this, for all the good it would do :(:(:() [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-finally-takes-on-oprah/498266.md?page=3)