I was teaching my beginner level class how to introduce oneself these past two weeks. One of the sentences nearly all textbooks (or approximations thereof) teach is: You can call me X. This got me to thinking of nicknames I’ve carried at various points in my life.
1. Runt, The Runt: Family nickname when I was very young. Of course, if you put me next to a couple of my brothers, you would see this moniker could still apply today.
2. Tony Baloney: An obvious rhyme to the cold-cut, probably frustrated me the most.
3. Monk: Given to me by co-workers as I didn’t tend to travel much from my post in Manado. They never visited, so they didn’t know what I wasn’t missing by travelling to Bali four times a year.
4. Batman: I ate fruit bat. Once.
5. T-bone, T-dog, T: No significance other than the T.