April 27, 2005 :: I think, therefore...

I'm having a minor identity crisis. For some reason, I think I'm fading away like Marty McFly's brother and sister in the family photo from Back to the Future, and being replaced with somebody else.

When I went to drop off my vacuum cleaner for repair yesterday, the sister front desk clerk took my information. She asked me my name and I proceeded to spell it for her, slowly and in pieces as I have learned to do.* I started with "T... A..." and then paused to watch her write those letters before I gave the rest. She hesitated, but managed to get them on paper. I continued with "J... H...", speaking as clearly and slowly as I can, sounding like I am teaching a kindergarten class. She hesitated again, and wrote "JAH" on the paper. Where that extra "A" came from, I have no clue. I was flabbergasted. I also didn't bother correcting her, because I knew that exercise would be of no consequence, as I am frequently positively identified regardless of rampant misspellings of my name, and she called me "Mr. Taylor" anyway since she was apparently afraid to incorrectly pronounce my first name. Woe be unto Stevie Wonder for popularizing the "Give your babies Swahili names" fad.

When I went to pick it up today, a different sister was working the desk. She took my claim ticket and then proceeded to say, "Do you know that you resemble a celebrity?" I've only heard this approximately 52571752774198 times in my life. It never fails, especially with older black folk, that they not only see this resemblance (which I really don't see), but they FORGET THE NAME OF THE CELEBRITY! "You know, you look like what's-his-name, from the TV and the movies- do you know who I am talking about?" Yes, I know. No, you're not the first person to tell me that. No, I don't think I look like him.

No, I'm not going to tell my readers who it is. Figure it out yourselves!


* In a strange yet annoying coincidence, the verbal spelling of my name is homophonic with "THAH", especially if you say it too fast. That's why I pause between the "A" and the "J". I occasionally get mail addressed to Thah, which is a sure sign it's junk mail of some sort.

posted by Rainmayun at 11:28 AM -