How the Suri Got Her Name (a semi-fable)
Jul. 21st, 2006 02:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lagilman(as requested in an earlier discussion-thread)
All right, this goes back a few years. How many years? There was no LiveJournal. There was barely, in fact, an AOL. But there was GEnie (and back then it was GEnie, not Genie, so it means it was way long ago. But I digress).
And in those days, a few of us hung out on the X Files categories (this was before LiveJournal but after XF. Almost everything occured after XF). An a bunch of us became friends, and some of us specifically made plans to get together in Manhattan for a visit over the winter holidays.
I was one of them. Another was![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
house_draven, who had never seen Manhattan at Christmastime before. So we showed her and the others around. Specifically, I insisted that we had to go to FAO Shwartz, because the world's most amazing toy store's most amazing outlet is even more amazing in December (assuming you can get in).
Anyway. We're walking through the stuffed animal section, squeeing over the cuteness, when I see a stuffie that is not the usual, run-of-the-mill, even for FAO Shwartz. And I look at it, and it looks at me, and there is a glimmer of recognition in both our eyes. So I pick it up, hold it next to my head, turn around, and say tohouse_draven and the others with us: "What do you think -- separated at birth?"
Once the hysterical laughter died down it was agreed that yes, there was a rather marked resemblance. And that probably would have been that. Except...
After we were done sightseeing, we went to another Major Tourist Spot: The Jeckyl & Hyde Club, which is a themed 'adventure' restaurant. The details of that dinner can be glossed over (all the participants have paid off and shredded the negatives by now, anyway) except to point out that in order to get to the bathrooms at the Club, you first hae to find them. Which can take some doing, including knowing which painting to move aside. And one of our party had been gone a rather long time, and we were concerned. So I stood up to see if I could see her coming back, through the crowd.
...
you know where this is going don't you?
...
Yeah.
Apparently, when I look around a crowd, I have a ...rather particular way of scanning the room. Comes from being short, and having to stretch in order to see anything. Anyway, someone (it may have beenkradical, or house_draven, or someone else, saw this, and called out: "meerkat!"
And it stuck. And how.
Of all the nicknames I've ever had in my life, it's the only one that took on a life of its own. "Meer" became the handle most people on-line knew me by (or MK, for short), and soon spread into my RL friendships as well.
Okay, you're thinking...but how did we get to "suri?"
Simple. Meerkats were becoming popular, I guess, and suddenly everyone wanted it as their handle, or username. So when I got locked out of an e-mail address, I tried variations (hence: evilmeer on AIM). And one of the variations that hit was the Latin family name: Suricata suricattus. suri, for short (which, yes, I am).
And so, meerkat got a twin/evil/good sister, suri. And so it has been, down the ages since then.
Ironically, enough, the meerkat is NOT my totem creature. That, I've had since I was about twelve.
All right, this goes back a few years. How many years? There was no LiveJournal. There was barely, in fact, an AOL. But there was GEnie (and back then it was GEnie, not Genie, so it means it was way long ago. But I digress).
And in those days, a few of us hung out on the X Files categories (this was before LiveJournal but after XF. Almost everything occured after XF). An a bunch of us became friends, and some of us specifically made plans to get together in Manhattan for a visit over the winter holidays.
I was one of them. Another was
house_draven, who had never seen Manhattan at Christmastime before. So we showed her and the others around. Specifically, I insisted that we had to go to FAO Shwartz, because the world's most amazing toy store's most amazing outlet is even more amazing in December (assuming you can get in).Anyway. We're walking through the stuffed animal section, squeeing over the cuteness, when I see a stuffie that is not the usual, run-of-the-mill, even for FAO Shwartz. And I look at it, and it looks at me, and there is a glimmer of recognition in both our eyes. So I pick it up, hold it next to my head, turn around, and say to
house_draven and the others with us: "What do you think -- separated at birth?"Once the hysterical laughter died down it was agreed that yes, there was a rather marked resemblance. And that probably would have been that. Except...
After we were done sightseeing, we went to another Major Tourist Spot: The Jeckyl & Hyde Club, which is a themed 'adventure' restaurant. The details of that dinner can be glossed over (all the participants have paid off and shredded the negatives by now, anyway) except to point out that in order to get to the bathrooms at the Club, you first hae to find them. Which can take some doing, including knowing which painting to move aside. And one of our party had been gone a rather long time, and we were concerned. So I stood up to see if I could see her coming back, through the crowd.
...
you know where this is going don't you?
...
Yeah.
Apparently, when I look around a crowd, I have a ...rather particular way of scanning the room. Comes from being short, and having to stretch in order to see anything. Anyway, someone (it may have been
kradical, or house_draven, or someone else, saw this, and called out: "meerkat!"And it stuck. And how.
Of all the nicknames I've ever had in my life, it's the only one that took on a life of its own. "Meer" became the handle most people on-line knew me by (or MK, for short), and soon spread into my RL friendships as well.
Okay, you're thinking...but how did we get to "suri?"
Simple. Meerkats were becoming popular, I guess, and suddenly everyone wanted it as their handle, or username. So when I got locked out of an e-mail address, I tried variations (hence: evilmeer on AIM). And one of the variations that hit was the Latin family name: Suricata suricattus. suri, for short (which, yes, I am).
And so, meerkat got a twin/evil/good sister, suri. And so it has been, down the ages since then.
Ironically, enough, the meerkat is NOT my totem creature. That, I've had since I was about twelve.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:26 pm (UTC)I really need to start paying better attention.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 06:43 pm (UTC)Thank you for the story, that was great.
And P.S. FAO Schwartz....LOOOOOOOOOOVE that place!
(Hope you don't mind, I added you to my F-list. I'm hoping you'll be in my area for a book signing one of these days. :))
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:21 pm (UTC)I was there, wasn't I?
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 07:50 pm (UTC)Could be worse, I suppose. I could be a three-toed sloth.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 08:30 pm (UTC)I'd been looking over con photo captions a year or so back, hunting out names I recognized, and there was you. And I nodded. And showed it to Wife, with the explanation. And she nodded.
Maybe it's the teeth?
(Ducks and runs and hides.)
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 08:38 pm (UTC)Also the coloring.
Some day I should do uo a set of meerkat mood icons. Except everyone would think that they were ferrets...
no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 05:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 08:34 pm (UTC)I was an RTC host for a while on SFRT-1. Oh, my. Those were the days.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 08:47 pm (UTC)I can pretty much blame my gainful employment in the gaming industry on Genie. :) I also blame it for the "lark" constant in my online names.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 10:24 pm (UTC)Cool.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-21 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-22 12:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-25 06:18 pm (UTC)How the young meerkat learns to eat
By Phil McKenna, Globe Correspondent | July 24, 2006
... Adult meerkats teach young ones how to catch deadly scorpions for dinner, according to a study in the July 14 edition of the journal Science....