Thread

Who Killed Paulina Borsook's Career?

57 points · 32 comments · danielmorozoff

self_awareness · 1790660185 · focus · HN ↗
> Ok, but first I have to tell you about Dick Pick. Literally his name. Richard A. Pick. Went by Dick.
How Americans keep straight face in such situations?
1. wmf · 1790660731 · focus · HN ↗
  Often they don't and it's kind of the point. You could go by Rich, Richie, Rick, Ricky, Dickie... if you choose to call yourself Dick, you know you're going to cause some amount of snickering and you're doing it on purpose.
  Also I remember men called him Richard Feynman but a lot of women called him Dick. That's sending a different message.
  1. stevoski · 1790668828 · focus · HN ↗
    I recall sitting in a seminar in Australia, conducted by an American man called Buck Rogers. I had a moment of disbelief when he introduced himself.
    I later found out that he had legally changed his name to Buck Rogers to intentionally be noticed.
    wolfi1 · 1790669255 · focus · HN ↗
    I doubt that Gen Z und the millenials would even know Buck Rogers
2. ben_w · 1790662185 · focus · HN ↗
  Not an American, but this reminded me of Randy Baumgardner and Foggy Bottom.
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Baumgardner" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Baumgardner
  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foggy_Bottom" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foggy_Bottom
  1. bnjemian · 1790663103 · focus · HN ↗
    From Randy Baumgardner’s Wikipedia page:
    “…a legislative intern, accused Baumgardner of sexual harassment in which he slapped her butt…”
    You can’t make this stuff up.
  2. gadders · 1790670390 · focus · HN ↗
    There used to be a Novell Netware engineer called Randy Bender, which caused a lot of mirth in the UK in the 90s.
    roryirvine · 1790688416 · focus · HN ↗
    Ha, yes - he was often featured in their adverts on the back cover of a bunch of computer magazines.
    I once heard a secondhand anecdote about an ad sales person at Dennis Publishing who had encouraged Novell to believe the ads featuring him were particularly popular and should therefore be repeated. Assuming that Novell were completely unaware of the UK meaning, that seems a bit cruel in retrospect...
  3. gertrunde · 1790681275 · focus · HN ↗
    Similarly, German skier Fanny Chmelar.
    (Known in the UK for a question on a quiz show that caused the host to lose his composure and be unable to stop laughing for a few minutes).
    <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Chmelar" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Chmelar
3. Tade0 · 1790665815 · focus · HN ↗
  "Borsook" as it is spoken means "badger" to most Slavic language speakers. Whoever was the immigration officer back then was noting things down by ear.
4. PyWoody · 1790677736 · focus · HN ↗
  There used to be a politician named Richard Swett[0]. He went by Dick.
  [0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_N._Swett" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_N._Swett
5. initramfs · 1790698725 · focus · HN ↗
  [dead]

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