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High! Eons is the ONLY social networking site I belong to, tho I do have "names" at other sites to access my personal info, and ALL of them usually incorporate "Paisley," because I've been into paisley-designed textiles since the late '60s. And especially purple-colored paisley designs, as purple is my astrological sign's color (Sagittarius).

So, "Paisley," followed by the last 2 digits of my birth year, "49," is my ID here. The ID "photo" is from Alice in Wonderland, with the hookah-smoking caterpillar, as I'm a daily pot smoker (plus I started, and manage, Old Tokers, here at Eons).

I also have a nom de plume for greeting cards I make, and writing I used to do years ago: "Shasta Montana," because "Shasta" is a beautiful, mountainous area in my home state of CA, my maiden name is "Montani," and I'm related to ex-San Francisco 49er Joe "Montana." I made the above glittery ID tag recently for another group that asked a similar question about our IDs. Stay High and Peace! Alison

arel1...

"Arel" is from "R.L.", part of my alter ego's initials, and the "1" is a homonym--I first used this screen name on a gaming site ("R.L. won!!!")

I've used more than one screen name in my time. Wurdguy is a name I assumed for Eons because it reminds me a little of the late Rus Stedman, a.k.a., Wryturguy.

Back in the early days of AOL's writers boards, Wry, BadCog and Robomonkey, along with ThisMoron, WriteBeth, and so on, held sway over what I suspect was the all-time liveliest online writing community ever. Stephen King (I think I'm right) would drop in, as would Nora Roberts (I know I'm right). CA Mobley was a regular, while John Grisham was a definite maybe.

The best of times was AOL's Great Crawford Flame War, circa 1995. It was so intense, Steve Case would read the boards, and even the NY Times mentioned that little brouhaha. The war went on for months -- Crawford against the world. Naturally, from time to time, I'd send him a little anonymous help via email. Hey, I'm only human and he was alone, okay?.

In those days, the AOL writers boards, because of the intensity of the contributing talent, were a great place to learn about writing. I'm being serious. In their own way, those guys, and that includes Wry, were good teachers -- if you paid attention, you could learn stuff.

I didn't know Wry had passed on until last year, when someone sent me a link to his personal site and a farewell message he'd left.

So here I'm Wurdguy, in honor of one of my betters.

Rcajun, I don't know where my parents came up with my name, but it is really spelled with two n's but I dropped one.
Everybody kept calling me Jean-netta where they get that I don't know.
I also get Janet, G-net, and for some crazy reason Jenny.

My last name really trips people up and they say it two or three different ways.
When my husband and I got married he told me people would never get my name right, and they don't.

Mine is StephanieChupein because my name is Stephanie Chupein.

This is an interesting thread.

My screen name is fairly obvious - I was born and raised in Scotland but now live in England.

I was interested in what newslady had to say about making reports on other peoples fortunes and misfortunes. One of my best friends Alex (he's dead now) was a photojournalist (and also Scots born) and lived near New York for many years. He was employed by the London Daily Mail and when it was announced that John Wayne had contracted "the big C", Alex was told to fly to California and interview him. Alex called him but there was no reply. Later that day, Alex was imbibing in the Press Club when the bartender handed him the phone saying: "It's John Wayne for you." Alex thought the barman had taken leave of his senses, but sure enough it was John Wayne.

Alex took the next available flight and met up with Wayne in a bar somewhere. As they chatted away, the drinks were being downed at an incredible rate and when Alex saw the drawn and tired Wayne, he decided not to take the camera out of the case, and they both got absolutely drunk together. Alex never reported a single word of their conversation.

There is a postscript to this. When it was announced that Wayne was near death, Alex sent a telegraph message "Remember the tequila in Sam Johnson's bar?" Wayne died a few hours after he got the telegraphed message, but his agent replied to Alex saying "Amongst his last few words, Wayne remembered the occasion and spoke briefly about the enjoyment of Alex's company and how he had respected Alex because Alex refused to take a pic of him."

Alex was also the only accredited UK journalist to accompany the Beatles on their first tour of the US. I've been privileged to see some of his pics of them which have never been published. One of Alex's sons inherited them. Two of my proudest possessions is a couple of pics Alex took of me in the 1980's.

PS to Paisley49 - Paisley is a town adjacent to Glasgow which was famous for fabrics for over two centuries and where the Paisley pattern was created. Robert Burns (1759 - 1796) wrote about the Paisley cloth in his epic poem "Tam O'Shanter".

Scotbrit,
Did that choice cost him his job?
I admire a person who can act upon his convictions, and your friend was such a man.
It doesn't take long for a subject to discover what kind of person the interviewer is. And for folks like me, that made for some fascinating stories. Not the traditional guts and grit kind of story, but something human.
I wish I could have met your friend.

No newslady - Alex was too good a photographer for the London Daily Mail to lose, so he kept his job until he returned to England. The London editors recognised his principles.

You would have liked Alex.

Wurd... I am SO JEALOUS!... I would have LOVED to have been around to participate in something like that!... (sigh)

WOW, scotbrit!... What a wonderful story!... I just adore John Wayne... So sad that he had to lose his life the way he did... He was a class act!... Sounds like your friend, Alex, was as well.