Ormond

Here's today's column. There were of course many other Samuels and Sams I could have mentioned if there had been room. In regard to the ASOIAF Sam, I discovered in my research for this column that "Samwell" is a rare English surname which does indicate an ancestor named Samuel. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-raise-a-pint-to-sam-his-historical-ties/article_94ace598-2727-535b-9a66-e4aef876f9f8.html

Sorry I've been so busy I couldn't post this before today. As an American I've always felt a bit confused by the existence of Bridget Cromwell ever since I learned about her -- wondering how on earth Oliver Cromwell came to give his daughter a name I've always thought of as the quintessential Irish Catholic name. I was fascinated to learn that, like Patrick, the Irish actually considered Bridget "too sacred" to give real girls back then, and it only became popular with them, ironically, when their English rulers forbade other Gaelic names. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-from-ancient-irish-roots-to-ren-e-zellweger-s/article_1e612d66-358a-5702-9587-a90d7588179e.html

Here's the link to my latest column. I tried to post this a few days ago and for some reason the copy function wouldn't work. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-cameron-journeys-from-the-highlands-to-hollywood/article_ee3ecb4a-d0fb-5ed2-beb4-9c2d85748d75.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&utm_campaign=user-share

Well, it was much more common in some places than others -- and certainly would have been much more common in the last few decades of the 19th century than it was in the first part of the century. "Initials only" was especially common in Texas but did occasionally occur in much of the South and West in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Here is the link to today's column. Sometimes there's a celebrity having a birthday who almost compels one to write about her. http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-madonna-as-a-name-is-never-in-vogue/article_0f3ceee5-a5f3-5b4d-bf41-77d060c79cc1.html

Very sorry. that should be fixed now.

Here is the link to today's column: http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-peter-and-pete-compete-with-popular-names/article_4da7c901-8627-59d1-ba0a-27c3e5d70ef8.html

Here's the link to yesterday's column: http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-amanda-had-her-heydey-in-s/article_fbb72df1-878a-5814-ba9a-18e12ae0c00f.html In the 3rd to the last paragraph, what I originally wrote was "and Boston’s hit took Amanda by surprise and made her realize her greatest one year baby name total (41,876) in 1987.", making use of an actual phrase from Boston's song, but that got edited out somehow. Perhaps the editor didn't get the reference.

Still don't know why my previous thread was archived after only 70 posts, so I guess I'll just have to start a new one. Here is a link to Tuesday's column. I got an email from Adam Ant's publicist thanking me for it. http://www.omaha.com/living/cleveland-evans-from-first-man-to-sexiest-man-alive-adam/article_e1122672-ad67-5acc-8403-ae1ab92f474d.html And here is the link to the one two wdeeeks before that, on using the names of the seasons as baby names: http://www.omaha.com/living/evans-roots-of-summer-stretch-back-to-antiquity/article_153699f8-b96b-52bf-b3e7-d8172660e3c8.html

So, is Ran now calling himself aRanycsapat on the Staff list? I just want to make sure I send a message to the correct person.

Starting a separate thread didn't work yet so I'm trying this here -- My "Names" thread in General Chatter has "this thread has been archived and further posts are not allowed" (not exact words) at the top of it now. This is very odd since there are only three pages of it and it has always been allowed to go for the full 20 pages before. How can this be fixed?

It is interesting, but how significant it is depends on how much the other 17 members of the Academy general agree with or are influenced by Engdahl in their own votes on the Nobel.

Well, I cleared the cache and "Full Editor" still didn't work on IE9. However, it does now work on Chrome. So I guess I'll have to use Chrome when I want to post on this site from now on.

I am using Windows Internet Explorer 9 on a desktop computer. Also, the "Post" button isn't working for me. I have to go into "More Reply Options" and use the "Add Reply" button there in order to post.

The "use full editor" button is not working for me so I can't change the subtitle on my names column. Anyone know how to fix this?

I've only read six GGK's so far (and that's counting Fionavar Tapestry as 3). My ranking of what I've read would be 1. Tigana 2. A Song for Arbonne 3. The Lions of Al-Rassan 4-6 Fionavar Tapestry. As I understand it Fionavar is very different from his later books. I believe he actually worked for the Tolkien estate when he was young, and Fionavar is quite specifically his own response to Tolkien and was sort of getting that out of his system when he was a young man. I think it's actually meant to be "derivative." I didn't care for the Arthurian part of it myself -- but on the other hand I think it's better than a lot of other books by authors who are doing just a pure Tolkien rip-off. It used to be on this board that Tigana was a book people either loved or hated. I loved it and found its ending made me think about the morality of the characters in a new way. There have been others on this board in the past who simply hated some of the characters and find it their least favorite of GGK's works.

I am very happy Alice Munro won! :) I would think this will be one of the Nobel Literature prize's least controversial choices.

Perhaps it's time to bump this thread up again as the Prize will probably be announced next week. Here's an article saying the betting has seen a surge for a Norwegian author named Jon Fosse recently, though the top three still seem to be the same with the same odds (Murakami, Oates, and Nadas): http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/oct/01/nobel-literature-bets-jon-fosse-odds-slashed Anyone here read any Fosse (or attended any of his plays?)

Unless the Swedish Academy decides to start honoring more than one person a year, it's inevitable there will be many, many authors who "deserve" to win the Prize who die before doing so. One person a year out of a planet of 7 billion just can't end up including all the great contemporary authors. I'm not at all an expert on this -- I really hope either Munro or Atwood win. However, if the Academy is less prejudiced against women authors from the USA than male ones, It seems to me there's always Joyce Carol Oates and Louise Erdrich to consider. Oates seems to maintain both an incredible rate of productivity along with high quality better than any other author I know, and some of her work is definitely fantasy or horror. From my limited knowledge, Erdrich seems to be the living Native American identified novelist with the best reputation, and perhaps giving the prize to a Native American would somewhat overcome any prejudices the Academy might have toward U. S. citizens. :)

Congratulations on winning your hypothetical bet! :)

Well, as we are now about a week away time to bump this up again -- I just accidentally ran across the existence of the Neustadt Prize, which I had never heard of before, but which claims to have a good track record of picking out future Nobel literature winners. For instance, they gave an award to Tomas Transtomer in 1990. The Neustadt is in some ways even more exclusive than the Nobel because they only give it every other year: http://www.worldliteraturetoday.com/neustadt-laureates Anyone read any of the past winners of this who haven't won the Nobel yet and think they're in the running this year? :)

Since we are now just about a month away from the Nobel Prize announcements, I thought it might be a good time to reanimate this thread. Here is an interesting speculative article on the issue: http://www.latimes.com/features/books/jacketcopy/la-jc-wild-speculation-about-the-nobel-prize-in-literature-20120821,0,6606131.story I am pleasantly surprised that I had heard of all the people in the two "top five" betting lists at the bottom, and that Alice Munro, one of the people I'd most like to see win, at least is #5 on one of the lists. I will have to admit that the only author mentioned in the article who I have actually read anything by is Cees Nooteboom, though. In terms of the other authors mentioned in the article who aren't on the betting lists, I certainly have heard of Chinua Achebe, knowing that Things Fall Apart is a novel often taught in college literature classes in the USA. However, I've never heard of Mircea Cartarescu, Merethe Lindstrøm, or Leonard Nolens. Anyone here who's read anything by any of those three?

Even though I'm from the USA, I'd really like to see a Canadian win as I don't think anyone from Canada has ever won the Nobel Literature Prize. The two Canadian authors I have heard mentioned the most often as possibilities are both women, Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro. Atwood is now 72 and Munro is now 80. I'd really like to see one of them win, but have no idea what their true chances are.