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This post will feel more like my Book Corner feature, but it’s not. It’s hard to review a book you haven’t read. To be honest, that’s partly why I’m posting on Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies – hoping the author, June Casagrande, will Google herself soon, spot this unabashed plea for a free copy, and, thankful that I’ve promoted it to tens of thousands of you faithful Word Wrap readers, will have no choice but to invite me for coffee and autograph a copy to me.
This, though slightly pathetic I’ll admit, is totally do-able, seeing as June lives near me and there’s a coffee shop every couple blocks in Los Angeles. I’ll even pay for the coffee, June. (Interestingly, on her website she states in her bio: “June Casagrande was born in March and lives in a small house.” Casagrande, of course, means “big house,” a smile-inducing juxtaposition worth pointing out, I thought.)
So again, the book is called Grammar Snobs Are Great Big Meanies and claims to “pierce the grammar snobs’ inflated sense of self-importance, using liberal doses of humor.” One would imagine there’s also a good deal of proper grammar usage tips to be extracted. I say this because June also writes a funny regular column in the Burbank Leader called “A Word Please,” and has a weekly feature on her on website called Language Tip of the Week.
So here’s to proper grammar, not being meanies, and a delightful-sounding book! Drop us a line dear Ms. BigHouse, don’t be shy… we all Google ourselves, right?
Anyone have a funny Googling yourself story to share? Like finding someone with your same name and getting in touch with him/her?
Comments (14)
Comment
A long time ago, some friends and I were going to license our names as web sites just for the heck of it. When I tried mine, it turned out the www.sheldonsiegel.com was already taken. I checked out the web site and it turned out the other Sheldon Siegel is a lawyer as well as a best-selling author. We are approx. the same age, and our signatures arte almost identical! I contacted him via e-mail and he told me of 3 other Sheldon Siegels. All of them were also lawyers and were writing novels as well.
I’m the only one not a lawyer, although I used to be a law school librarian and a legal asst.
I still keep in touch with the other Sheldon from time to time and he sends me signed copies of his books when they are released. :-)
It’s kind of cool having a row of books on my shelf with “my” name on them and signed “From Sheldon Siegel TO Sheldon Siegel.
posted by Sheldon Siegel on 3-2-2007 at 9:48 am
That’s a good one, Sheldon. I did the same thing and discovered 2 other David Israels in Los Angeles, all writers, too… I also started getting royalty checks for one of them and, as a result, have since become good friends with him!
posted by David on 3-2-2007 at 9:54 am
Too funny!
And FYI it was not by googling myself (too much of that’ll give a girl carpal tunnel syndrome) that I found this but because my website statistics showed I got some hits from this page.
Anyhoo, I’d be happy to get you a free copy. Can’t figure out from this site, though, how to contact you directly. Send me an e-mail and I’ll make it happen.
Best,
June Casagrande
posted by June Casagrande on 3-2-2007 at 10:19 am
I’ve had more than my fair share of name collisions. I know of 6 or 7 other Bryan Wolf’s, without Googling.
1) An ambulance dispatcher in Louisiana, who I discovered when I was working on their software.
2) A medical researcher with a half dozen patents I can’t even pronounce (I’ve almost caught up with him on patents, but that guy doesn’t quit!)
3) The best friend of my coworker’s father, in Montana.
4) A doctor at a college in my same town - he just moved in and we’ve had a few calls from patients desparate to talk to him. I’ve been meaning to visit him (”Dr. Wolf, Bryan Wolf is here to see you”) and ask if I should get an unlisted number because of him.
5) A guy in San Diego who Social Services is looking for. SS called me, verified my SSN and said, “You’re not him.” They refused to speak to my wife, which made her quite apprehensive.
6) A guy one city away, working in a cubicle somewhere. An electrician friend of mine saw the name plate when he was doing some work there.
7) The guy ten years younger than me and living somewhere in the area with an arrest warrant out for him. That was the most interesting traffic stop I ever had.
I’ve wondered if 6 and 7 are the same, but the rest appear to be distinctly different people.
posted by Bryan on 3-2-2007 at 10:57 am
There is a seemingly well known underground DJ who shares my name. He even has a wikipedia of himself, Patrick Adams
not to mention I was nicknamed Patch for years before That movie came out
posted by patrick on 3-2-2007 at 2:32 pm
So I found someone with my name, but not the way any of us want to find out!
When I was at college my family got a visit from HomeLand Security looking for Bilal Hussain!
This was shortly after 9/11 and scared the crap out of my parents. Who immediately called me at school and proceeded to yell at me. I couldn’t figure out why.
Needless to say they got in touch with me at school and I went to visit HomeLand Security.
Turns out there’s an illegal alien by the name of Bilal Hussain they were trying to track down. Agent Dan immediately realized it wasn’t me but we talked for a while anyway.
We talked for about 2 hours and we still keep in touch socially. Really nice guy!
That’s a good story with mistaken identity and our government. Sure enough there’s plenty of bad ones out there.
posted by Bilal Hussain on 3-2-2007 at 4:37 pm
I’ve never been able to get my hands on jasonenglish-dot-com (relegated to jasonenglish1). Years ago, it showcased photos of another Jason skating around a home-made ice rink. Now it’s owned and operated by Jungle Jason English, who, according to the website, may be a monkey.
I’ve gotten emails from another Jason English - not a monkey - who seemed like a good guy, and forwards me any mail incorrectly sent his way.
These stories are far less exciting than Bryan and Bilal. Frankly, I’m disappointed in myself and my name-sakes.
posted by Jason on 3-2-2007 at 6:24 pm
I once got a call from the former wife of another Tim Reade, asking if I was her ex and saying “our” daughter was coming from Viet Nam and wanted to meet me. I assured her I was the wrong guy! And there is Tim Reid the actor/director/producer ( Venus Flytrap on WKRP; Sister, Sister; Frank’s Place; Oz movies), but I have not gotten his royalty checks yet. With my spelling
(Reade), Google shows I am a penniless painter in an Iris Murdoch book.
posted by Tim Reade on 3-2-2007 at 8:30 pm
I used to google my self and generally come up with stuff that actually referred to me (including an essay from a religion class I took freshman year of college that I had totally forgot I wrote). But now I am an elementary teacher and shortly after I became a teacher a woman with my name published a children’s book! So my students came up to me asking if I had written the book, which I had never even heard of! So now when I google me I get links to that book on amazon and such. :( I no longer feel as special.
posted by Sara on 3-3-2007 at 3:22 pm
As far as I know I am the only Sara Rosehill in the world (the last name is an anglicization of Rosenberg), so when I google myself it’s just me. It always pulls up the webpage for a Jujutsu dojo I used to attend, where there is a photo of me at a seminar that has my name in the caption. I had a long-lost relative find me this way!
posted by Sara R on 3-4-2007 at 2:58 am
One of my namesakes was a girl on the Oregon Trail, Hannah Louise Sager. I always liked that computer game.
posted by hana on 3-4-2007 at 4:45 pm
There are three of me that I know of– one is my brother’s wife, so that isn’t mysterious at all… he just went out and married a girl with my first name, thus giving her our last name.
The other, of all the quirky coincidences, lives in my home town, where my parents still live. I have not met her, but apparently she looks like me! (Several of my past students have come back to tell stories of mistaking her for me in stores and the like.)
I first learned of her when I went to an opthamologist during my junior year of high school– he had a chart all ready and asked about my glasses… to which I replied that my vision was 20/20 and I’d never been to his office before. Poor confused man. If memory serves, this other Rachel may even have the same middle initial as I do.
posted by Rachel on 3-5-2007 at 7:20 pm
You only get 6 sites when you google my name- 5 are about me, and one is about a man who died in a 1960 earthquake in Algeria… That said, I’ve actually only met 3 other Camille’s in my life! If you google just my last name (Papon)you get a horrible evil man who committed atrocious war crimes during WWII. He’s not related to me- thank goodness!
posted by Camille on 3-6-2007 at 3:17 am
There’s another girl named Katie Schwing out there. We went to college together, actually. Her birthday is 4 days before mine, and we came very close to having the same middle names. We also spell Kathryn the same way.
It’s creepy.
posted by katie on 3-7-2007 at 11:57 pm