What’s In A Name?
My good blogging pal Nina, The Alien Next Door, tagged me a few days ago with this: What’s In A Name? Find your Name Sake.
The rules are simple, folks:
1) Go to http://www.google.com/
2) Click on Google images
3) Type in your name and search
4) Repost (w/ a link) the picture of the oddest, craziest, strangest, coolest, oldest, etc. person that shares your name. Post multiples if you find a few you like.
5) Have fun with it and pass it on.
Hmmm. The trouble for me is: I share a name with a very famous person, the Bob Kingsley who hosts the Country Top 40 US radio show. Googling our name brings up about 43,400 images, many of which on the first few pages are all to do with him. So I had to dig quite deep through the search pages to find some unrelated material!
First up, then: “the other” Bob Kingsley. After years of not communicating, I finally plucked up the courage to e-mail him when I started this blog some months ago, to let him know I’d written a page about how we shared the same name and profession. He very kindly replied, saying how he’d heard many years ago of an English BK whose strapline on a web directory for voice-overs was “the one and only Bob Kingsley”, which rather upset him. I was mortified to discover this after all these years, especially as the strapline was really not my invention but added by the web master at the time. (He’s forgiven me now!) BK’s show is syndicated across hundreds of stations, including Dixie 1057, from where this picture originates.
Then there’s me — a photo from about 27 years ago (crikey!), at a DevonAir Radio tribute site. Back in the days when I was also a radio DJ. I had the privilege of being the first voice heard on DevonAir when it began broadcasting in 1980 to Exeter in Devon. I also played the first-ever “split” commercial break in the UK a few months later, when the station added a second transmitter in the Torbay area and separate commercials had to be played simultaneously through the different transmitters. We were still using tape “carts” in those days — computerised, digital audio was still many years away — and each commercial break was a feverish couple of minutes, pulling played carts from two different players and stuffing the next ones in. The breaks often didn’t balance time-wise, so there were agonising moments of silence on one side as I waited tensely for the other break to catch up. Despite these occasional technical nightmares, it was one of the best times of my broadcasting life — I was part of a great team on a terrific station, living in a wonderful part of the world.
I came across this map of Kingsley, Michigan amongst the many search results. It shows the location of Bob Mitchell & Associates and reminded me of a trip I once planned with my dear friends Chrissie and Mike Shepherd, though we never actually accomplished it. Idly searching one day for places around the world that carried our surnames, I was amazed to discover both a Kingsley and a Shepherd within about 90 miles of each other in Michigan. We intended to fly over for a holiday, hire a Winnebago and go travelling to our namesake towns. Sadly, we haven’t made it yet!
If ever we did make it, perhaps we’d stay at The Kingsley House at Saugatuck, Michigan — it looks like such a fabulous place! It’s within minutes from the resort towns of Saugatuck, Holland and South Haven. Experience all that Southern and West Michigan Beach resort towns have to offer. Sunsets over the beaches of Lake Michigan, Wine Country, Antiques, Dowhnhill and Cross Country Skiing are all close by. Wow.
Finally, this little gem, a world away from The Kingsley House: this portable toilet is (presumably still) to be found in a village called Kingsley in Hampshire, here in the UK. Strangely enough, I used to live just a few miles from Kingsley some years ago. While the web site — The King’s Blog – Views From Kingsley (now, sadly, “withdrawn due to lack of interest”, it says rather pointedly) — doesn’t make it clear exactly which village of Kingsley it represents, it must be the Hampshire one, because the post that includes this pic, dated April 8th 2004, includes reference to another village called Bordon, which I know to be close by because that’s where I used to live! It also says (equally rather spookily): At long last Bob’s prayer has been answered and Kingsley now has its first public toilet. This fine example of “Georgian” architecture was observed on my morning inspection of Kingsley Common and I offer congratulations to the powers that be for responding to the obvious need for well maintained publicly accessible sanitation facilities. Anyone caught short on their way home from the Cricketers now only has to divert about half a mile along the track to Bordon and, no doubt, this will reduce the incidence of residents, possibly overtired, having to rush home with undue haste thereby increasing the risk of road accidents. (No, I’m not the “Bob” mentioned — but isn’t that odd though?)
There you have it. As time is pressing, I’m sure Nina will forgive me for not passing this tag on to others right now. Maybe later …
SF Girl says:
August 29th, 2007
7:57 am
HAR! That’s good! I had no idea there was another Bob Kingsley, other than yourself…
Love the toilet. But isn’t it called a watercloset in the UK? Or is it a loo? I know the Aussies call it a dunny. We usually call it a washroom in Canada.
meeyauw says:
September 16th, 2007
2:02 pm
I tried that, looking up my name (only the first name) and never realized what bizarre stuff I’d get. I doubt there are any places with my name, tho. But this toilet thing is confusing because of the names. How many places in England can have the same name? One per county? I know you don’t call them counties but I don’t know what you do call them.
I guess we are confusing, too. We have townships and villages inside the towns. So Newport has Newport City and Newport Town, also known as Newport Center.
But I am finally making progress on catching up after my Labor Day break two weeks ago. Never again will I take a four day blogging break!
Somerset Bob says:
September 17th, 2007
8:44 am
SF Girl: this one should probably be called a Portaloo (a brand name, but like “Hoover”, often used as a general term) — I think the phrase “water closet” was probably last used in Queen Victoria’s day! “Loo” is the most popular modern day euphemism. (“Bog” is another word used, but as a dysphemism.) I like your “washroom” — much more civilized!
Meeyauw: Actually, we do have counties over here. Somerset is a county, as are Dorset, Hampshire, Devon, Cornwall, etc. Some counties, like Somerset, Dorset and Devon, used to be called “Somersetshire”, “Dorsetshire” and “Devonshire”, but the “shire” part has been dropped over time. Some counties, like Cornwall, never had the “shire” part (perhaps because they once operated, a long, long time ago, as small independent countries or principalities). Some other counties, such as Wiltshire and Hampshire, still retain the “shire” part, probably because they’d sound funny without them. Still others, such as Gloucestershire, often seem, in modern-day usage, to either use the “shire” part or drop it — but in the case of Gloucestershire, dropping the “shire” can be confusing because Gloucestershire’s county town is also called Gloucester! (Confused yet?!)
In governmental administrative terms, most of our counties are referred to these days as “shire counties” or “non-metropolitan counties” to differentiate them from “metropolitan counties”. Wikipedia can explain it better than me!
Many towns and villages in England can have the same name — there are towns and villages called “Kingsley” in Cheshire, Hampshire and Stafforshire, for example. I haven’t researched it further, but I think it probably would be unusual (though it may not be unheard of) to have two distinct places in the same county sharing the same name.
Glad you’re back with us — I’ve missed your comments!
david johnson says:
May 15th, 2009
9:36 pm
i have to correct you.devonshire and dorsetshire is still used thank goodness
Somerset Bob says:
May 16th, 2009
12:12 am
Hi David — Well, yes, I suppose they are, by some — but I venture to suggest that most people have dropped such use these days.
The Google query you submitted — “why has the shire been droped from the name of dorset” — which led you to read my item, suggests you think it’s been eliminated too.