You say they're friends but you've never met?

the two of you are so funny. I still remember that night in NY when I spent more time laughing than anything else !!

I had to go back and see what Seed wrote :

emphasis mine

I do not for a moment believe that Frank Apisa has no middle name. He's Italian, Italian in italics for Christsakes, (well, maybe not for Christsake in Frank's case, but Italian nonetheless. (Good. I got to use the word nonetheless in a sentence.!!)

Where was I?

Oh, yeah, NMI bullseye. Every Italian kid I knew growing up had four or five names, Guiseppe or Joseph had to be one of them then the two grandfathers' names, Antonio or Paulo, and then a saint's name, Augustus or Augustino, (all the Irish kids had Patrick, Peter, or Michael), and these were in addition to a first name like Frank or Roberto or John.

and so that's where all the nicknames came from, all the Little ______s that Seed was talking about. Little Mike, Little Jack, Little Tony and Little Earl, I've known them all and all had a Big Mike, or Jack or Tony in their family. All except Little Earl, he was a black kid I knew and his mama just called him that for the same reason Bi-Polar Bear named him Steve, because she liked it.

In our family, we have too many Marys. So we have Tom'sMary and MaryM and MaryT and others. And because we have so many Patricks and Michaels, we have PaddyMike, Mike'sPaddy, Big Mike, Little Mick and Little Mike (two different families), reunions are hysterical.

Diane is right about women disappearing without their maiden names. When I do genealogy for my family I often come across obits that list the decedent's offspring as "loving sons John and Peter and daughters, Mrs. Albert Smithson, Mrs. Ben Venito and Mrs. Ralph Esposito." You have to look some more to figure out which of the Mrs. is Emily or Josephina or Mary.

My brother's middle name is Eldred and it is my father's middle name too. It was a kind of family mystery because there were no other Eldreds going back to the 1600's. There was a rumor, mummured by a late aunt, that Eldred was a man who farmed near my grandparents, but no one really knows, it just floats on the genealogy page - a name connected to the present but not the past in any way we can point to.

Oy, (I meant to type Oh, but I typed oy so I'll leave it.) Seed, in some families the 'little' is dropped once the 'big' has shuffled off this mortal coil, is that the way it is in yours or are you stuck with Little forever??

Joe (NMI) Nation

There was a guy in the Army, it is said, whose name was RB Jones, that's it he explained, my name is RB, it's just what the family named him, so the guy fills in the form R (only) B (only) Jones and that's that until the guy's dogtags come back imprinted

Ronly Bonly Jones

And have your guts torn out, and die in agony, if you are lucky enough to mate?

Or just die after a bootless mating flight, like the overwhelming majority of drones?

What makes you think that his life isn't like that now?

Joe

And not only do I not have a middle name...but my first name as shown on my birth certificate is "Frank"...not Francis or Franklin or François or Francesco or anything else.

Just Frank.

And no middle name, Joe, no matter how Italian I am.

Ain't that a summphen!

Great poem, Joe. Thanks for posting it.

Frank, I'm just curious, when you called yourself Frank NMI Apisa (is your family from Pisa?) did you pronounce it like Frank'n'me so that people got the idea that you were really two people?

Good one, FreeDuck, you beat me to it.


Edgar writes:


And it sounds just like you.
===

But did you have a nickname, Frank, or did they call you Frank your whole life (damn, that really fits you....)

No middle name here. Just Roger V. I never use a period after the V just to indicate it isn't an initial.

My folks came from an area around Naples called Casserta...where Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Dr. Malfi's folks came from.

The name is pronounced like the Tower town with an "a" in front. My father's favorite comment was "The tower has been in the family for years."




Nope...I pronounced it Frank N M I Apisa.

By the by...several people I knew in service who had the NMI inserted...enjoyed using the letters when giving their names also.

Roger the fifth?

Well...I've had several nicknames...and I've been called lots of very colorful things over the years (as you might suspect.)

Most of the kids in my neighborhood called me Dolan, a name I got from a favorite radio detective character, Ross Dolan, played by William Gargan. The nickname actually came up when the did the BI for my Top Secret clearance.


And you are defiintely not the first to mention that the name, Frank, fits me. :wink:

Joanne is my real first name and Dorel is my grandmother's first name.

It has been three years since I was on the East Coast and I am kind of missing it. We have relatives just outside the City, north, close to West Point. As the twins, my godson and niece are growing up so fast we are going to try and make it this summer.

If and when we have definite plans I will let you know.

Some of my new friends in San Diego think I am a little nuts when I talk about you guys like I have met all of you personally, hehe. A couple of times the have even started these very strange conversations about people who meet on the net and think they know each other. I just ignore them.

To answer Joe's question, I could be in New York in March.

Cinnesthesia (not her real name anyway) LastNameWithheld

Interesting take on Frank's middle name. I pronounced it differently when I read it. Sounded more like the scientific singular of a 'cleansing," which made me wonder how the military dealt with THAT!!

But, I digress...

I have plenty of stories to tell and look forward to meeting Joe and hearing many more of his. I'll start here with the name topic, and we will have to continue, perhaps in the spring? I have never been to NYC and would love to see Central Park in bloom.

My first name was chosen to honor my mothers best friend. My middle name was the street on which this friend lived at that time. I now live in a location, of which neither of them had ever been to, but which has numerous things named after me. There are two streets, one being my first name and the second my middle name, and they are next to each other in such a way as to make me feel scolded each time I drive past the signs! The plus side is that my children think I am famous!

Well I was gonna propose an NMI Club, but Squinney's little interpretation put a stop to that...!

Too cool about the street signs!

Alright. We are scheduling the arrivals..... Cinn in March and squinney when Central Park is in bloom hmmmmm late April/early May.

I told my wife I had invited everybody to come to the city,

she said, that's nice about how many members are there?

I said about 10,000 but that probably only about three thousand would show up..

.. she said we're going to need another pull-out sleeper sofa and extra glasses.

Pull out sleeper?

Heck, I don't plan on doing much sleeping when I make my way out to the big apple.

More thoughts...

I'm thinking I need to plan my arrival to coincide with Cav. A walk in Central Park with Mr. & Mrs. Nation, Frank, Cav, and any others, followed by a return to the Nation home where we all prepare dinner together with Cav's assistance, then finish with drinks in the family room.

(Big Chill comes to mind, but without the funeral or share-a- husband part.)

Things are lookin' up for fun and games.

Joe, I promise to look you up the next time I come to NYC (whenever that might be). The last time I was there was August of 2003 on a lovely not-too-hot long weekend, and I had the pleasure of meeting our fellow a2ker bree. If I'd known you then, I'd have met you too!

My name is generally mispronounced when read as well as mis-spelled when heard. I used to have a problem with that, but I've gotten over it. I rarely correct people's mispronunciations.

I was named for my grandmother who died a few days before I was born. Her maiden name is now my middle name.

Oh and my brother and his wife decided not to give my nephews middle names. When the boys were little, they had new middle names practically every day. One of them used Snoopy for a long time.