My father is a West Virginian, born and raised, and loves to tell hillbilly jokes.
There was this awful joke he told once, about how the new nurse for the County Extension Health Service was making the rounds to all the outlying hill communities, with informative pamphlets about disease, hygiene, and the many free services offered by the County. And she was talking about venereal disease at one point, when this woman raised her hand and said, “Could I hear a little bit more about this?”
The nurse, being a kindly and dedicated soul, proceeded to go on about VD at great length, as well as the services the county offered to deal with this dreadful scourge. Upon hearing her, the woman glanced at an informatory pamphlet, and asked for help pronouncing two words in particular.
The nurse, being aware that some medical terms can be a mouthful, said, “That one is gohn-a-REE-uh… and that one is SIH-full-iss.”
A year later, the nurse was making the rounds again, and returned to this particular community, and the woman to whom she’d spoken had given birth to twin girls, which she and her husband proudly showed the nurse… who made the mistake of adoring their baby beauty… and asking for their names.
Sure enough… Gonorrhea and Syphilis.
And I told you that awful joke so I could tell you this story.
First day of school, I’m lookin’ at my roster, and am a little flummoxed to find that one of my seventh graders has the first name of… Internet.
So I call her name. Internet. And she glances up. “Yes?”
“Your name is Internet?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s kind of an unusual name, isn’t it?”
She shrugged. “I’ve heard of a couple others.”
THAT sort of croggled me. There are multiple children out there named Internet? “So… how’d your mother come up with that name for a little girl?”
She shrugged again. “Because of the princess.”
This was starting to hurt my brain. “The princess?”
“Yeah, the princess,” said Internet. “You know, that French princess that wanted everybody to eat cake? Marie Internet?”
I swear, I can’t make this stuff up…