My first post to SDMB was back in 2005, and I was really active for several years (faded away the past several, but…). I’ve seen countless posts by Der Trihs and even had some back and forth from time to time.
I always though his name was some German phrase I never bothered to look up. This created a certain mental image whenever I saw his posts.
What a shift when it finally (just recently) hit me that his name is Red Shirt spelled backwards. Now instead of reading his posts with a stern German face in mind, I can only see a fellow Trekker but in better cosplay than I could achieve.
I recall his explanation years ago that it was “Red Shirt” backwards, which enlightened me at the time, but I’m not sure it was Star Trek-inspired, at least originally - perhaps if we page @Der_Trihs he will stop by and clarify?
I’d tumbled to the backwards meaning pretty early after he arrived.
But rather than taking him for a Trekkie/Trekker, I took it as a sardonic nod to “expendable bit player upon the stage of life” and that’s it. He’s an Everyman, a mensch. Modest, with lots to be modest about. Hell, he was a night manager at a small hotel. The only way that could have been more blah is if he also co-managed the Denny’s next door to his La Quinta.
None of which is meant to insult the man. He said some interesting things and had a much more interesting character and internal mental life than he did physical real life.
Associating his name or him with Star Trek never occurred to me, and I absolutely can’t picture anyone like him anywhere in Star Fleet. I assumed it referred to his clearly leftist political views.
And the titular Schlock Mercenary character was first so named (in comic) June 30th, 2000, less than 3 weeks in to the comics run (although he appears in the first strip and is named in the transcript, but that may have been added retrospectively).
