Ice names unknown


Ubu.

It just happened to hit me this morning, as I was thinking about my name. You see, I came across a Lily Kronberger. Her last name is spelled differently than mine. She lived in a different time. And, she was Jewish. Doing research, I have noticed this variation between the Catholic Kronenberger, and of course, the Jewish Kronberger. I guess the extra “en” may have been too much at Seder.

Anyway. Lily Kronberger was a figure skater. A really good one. She was Hungarian, born in Budapest on November 12, 1890.

There was not much more about her life that I found doing a quick search of things. She won a few shiny good medals in World Championships, for spinning around on a rink of ice. She was the first athlete to win a world championship gold for Hungary. And, lining up the years: I wonder if she was in Hungary during WWII. Hungarian Jews had a very hard time of things back then.

But a cool thing, no pun intended: In 1911, Kronberger became the first skater to use musical accompaniment during her entire free program. And then, as time goes, Lily died in Budapest in 1974, at the age of 83.

There I went on a Lily-tangent. Names dang it. I was thinking about names.

The thing I was originally considering, is that my name is very unique. There aren’t many Polly’s, and not many Kronenberger’s. But then it hit me. What about Jane Doe’s?

Worry no further. Jane has a fairly common occurrence. There are 410,314 people in the U.S. with the first name Jane. Doe drops off a little. Of course there is the good song. Which I sing whenever I hear Doe, a deer, a female deer. But the name. There are 14,119 people in the U.S. with the last name Doe.

But how about the two together? There are 18 people in the USA with the name Jane Doe. But there are way more John Doe’s, at 238.

Either way, it seems like that would be a real bummer for them. Ordering carry-out and such. Medical forms. Christmas stockings by the chimney.

The “origins” of the “Doe Naming” is all-out whack-jobby. It goes way back to old English common law disputes between landowners and squatters. It would take three good paragraphs for me to explain it here. And I am a no-nonsense author this evening. Because I have a point.

If you like to ice-skate, you should triple-axel your way through life to the music in your head, no matter what your names is. And then stop really fast on the ice, so that you do that thing where the blades of your skates spray ice chips every where. But, if you have aspirations of getting a job in a morgue, where they put people on ice, more power to you. It might get lonely, and you won’t be able to spray ice chips. If you go for the morgue job, I only hope against hope that your name isn’t John Doe. Toe tags, and all.

And.
And.

If you want to be an ice skater, and you buy your skates a the Dollar Store, people might call you a cheap skate.

And.

I’m pretty sure I had another ice pun, but it must have slipped my mind.

And all of this, is why I don’t try to find work as a motivational writer.

So go out there and be the best you ever. No matter who you want to be. Ice skater. Morgue boss.

You be you.

Ubu.


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“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”
― Norman Vincent Peale

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“I am a part of all that I have met.”
― Alfred Tennyson

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“Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.”
― Sherrilyn Kenyon

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