Friday, October 15, 2010

What's In A Name?

If you type "Vernon Park" into your search box, you probably won't get much specific response. Contrastingly, if you put "Juan James Rodriguez" in that same box and press "enter," you'll get a whole lot more than you might have expected or wanted to see. This is the guy who got arrested this past weekend for streaking in front of the president. He did it, allegedly, to snap up the million dollar award set up by billionaire media "prankster" Alki David. Mister Rodriguez was quickly arrested. Mister David said it was unclear if his naked minion met all the criteria to qualify for the prize.
More to the point, it was the name of the web site, Battlecam.com, that needed to be stenciled across the streaker's chest, and had to be shouted "six times within earshot of the President." In the big book of "there's no such thing as bad publicity," I suppose Alki David just wrote a chapter all his own. His web site gets all kinds of traffic, his bio gets refreshed on Wikipedia, and Juan J. Rodriguez slips quickly into the footnotes, right next to Robert Opel.
Then there's the still-unnamed author who, in a fit of what might be best described as exuberance, tossed his new book at the President. Same day. Same park. He too was quickly taken into custody, even though he remained clothed during the exchange. According to reports, the guy "really wanted the President to read his new book." Obviously he missed the mark. He should have written it across his chest and run past the podium. The font would have to be smaller than a simple web address. Or better yet, he might have hired somebody else to "show off his shortcomings." Then maybe we'd know his name too.

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