Do you have ten fingers?
August 21, 2006I just got the silliest Hyves invitation ever (Hyves is the Dutch equiv. of MySpace, or similar webtwodotohsocialnetworkingnonsense). In any case… As you all know, my name is Thom. Just, Thom. It’s not short for Thomas, or whatever. Thom, as a name, is pretty rare in The Netherlands, as 99.9% of the people who want to name their kid like me choose the common variant, which is Tom, without the ‘h’. Whenever I have to give out my name, I always have to stress it’s “Thom, with an ‘h’”.
And I just got an invitation to join a Hyves group for people named… Thom. The invite said:
Do you also feel alone because everyone else is named ‘Tom’? This group is for Thom’s only.
It reminded me of yet another priceless quote from Dead Like Me. It’s Georgia, wondering why people always try so hopelessly to become part of a group– any group. The quote is not literally, as I can’t locate the proper transcript.
Hey, do you have ten fingers? Yes! Cool, let’s make a club for people with ten fingers, and then, when we see someone with only nine fingers, we’re gonna beat the crap out of him!
Fcuking pathetic.
What synchronicity !? I just read a story with a character named Thom.
What’s more, the writer is from the Netherlands !
Beyond the Aquila Rift by Alastair Reynolds is in Year’s Best SF 11.
Comment by mikesum32 — August 21, 2006 @ 9:42 pm