07th Jul 2003
Name Phreaks
I moved to San Francsico in late 1995 and soon realized the only thing worth reading in the SF Chronicle was the column by Herb Caen. I hadn’t know anything about the guy before I moved there, but I soon learned he was a beloved city institution. I didn’t realize at the time that he had been around forever (first column in 1936). Turned out that 1996 was a big year for Caen: he turned 80, won the Pulizter Prize, got married, had a major street in SF named after him (3.2 miles along the bayside Embarcadero) and he dropped dead. He is greatly missed by thousands, maybe millions, and as a now former San Franciscan who has expressed his fair share of cynicism about that city, I should say I have nothing but great respect and fondness for that greatest of newspaper columnists.
One thing about Caen’s column I especially loved was what he called Name Phreaks. This blog post wasn’t really supposed to be a tribute to Herb Caen, it was only supposed to be about Name Phreaks. But having thusly paid tribute to Herb Caen, I hereby offer to take over the mantle of responsiblity for carrying on the Name Phreaks tradition, just because it’s a fascination I’ve long shared with Mr. Caen, even before I first read of it in his column.
That is, people whose names oddly describe them. Here’s today’s example: an accountant by trade and the most recent winner of the World Series of Poker: Chris Moneymaker.
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