P&A

Presentation and appearance.  Those are the two most important implicit and at the same time, explicit factors when it comes to marketability.  Without presentation and appearance, you're going to have a tough time selling your product; let alone even getting the chance to deliver it to the consumer.  If this weren't the case, we'd all buy generic food at the supermarket.  If the display environment didn't matter, then we'd all go to Best Buy and purchase the "discount mp3 player" and not really pay much mind to the latest iPod model.  You can argue the function of the devices and taste of the food, but you probably wouldn't even realize any of these benefits if you hadn't noticed the products in the first place.  Once again, Presentation and Appearance.  P&A. 

Beyond price markups and economic strategy, P&A is also vital when making other possibly crucial decisions.  Whether you acknowledge it or not, presentation and appearance are the two biggest things when it comes to winning the approval of other people.  We would all like to think we're not that vain, but truth is, we really are.  Those two things matter.  A lot.  From wearing nice clothes, to keeping our car clean, we do care what other people think, and regardless of what we think, we intuitively know that P&A goes a long way, and the perception of it by others really is a reality.



P&A is used mainly in gaining approval, or attempting to sell a product, as shown by example above.  A stage performer is an example of an entity which tries to accomplish both, and they use massive amounts of P&A.  We all know the production and promotion that goes into concerts, live shows, and other forms of entertainment.  But have you ever realized the power of the greatest ingredient to a performer's P&A?  The power of their name?

Real, fake, or obviously staged, the name a performer chooses to go by makes all the difference.  This is where a believable, yet barely researched phenomenon comes into play.  And this is where this article gets a lot less serious.



Put on your analytical hats (even though hat wearing is a dying practice) and ask yourself... what's in a name?



Is "Bill Currington" just as good at drinking beer?  Or would we rather look to "Billy Currington" for good directions?


Why is "Kesha" spelled with a dollar sign?



How many albums/iTunes downloads would "Bob Zombie" sell?



Three examples of P&A as directly applied to stage names.  Although this seems admittedly ridiculous, the subtleties are probably very important.  Their name is probably not what got them bolstered into stardom, but their name is definitely what carried them over the top.




Would the professional wrestling career of Randall the "Macho Man" Savage even have materialized?


What if you found out that the tremendously popular CBS program "How I Met Your Mother" was narrated by Robert Saget?



Not only the P&A of the name itself, but the selection of the proper name variation has proven to be pivotal.  Just mere name equivalent substitution can make all of the difference.


Would you listen to what Ronnie sang if "Take me Home Tonight" was performed by Edward Money?


Would "Vinny Diesel" even get casted for anything outside of the "Jersey Shore?"


Do these notable pop-culture figures even take time and effort to consider this?  Probably, and most likely due to both P&A and the precedent put on vanity in Hollywood.  But it could also easily be a Darwinian thing, in which we have to go to another part of the circle in this logic, and view this more as a causal phenomenon than an effectual one. In other words, once they found the right name, and given they had the other set of attributes necessary (mainly talent), all of the other pieces started to fall into place. 

This phenomenon (if you will), can also be explored when you consider past leaders of our country.  Let's take a glance at a select few U.S. Presidents.


Millard Fillmore went by Millard, without any extreme repercussions.


FDR more than got by on an acronym, but he was equally as memorable with Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


"I like Ike" vaulted Dwight Eisenhower into the oval office. 


William Jefferson Clinton made headlines, and in the headlines he was referred to as Bill, or "Slick Willy."


Many people did not approve of George Dubya.  But this could have been in reaction to policy.


Of course, many of these monikers were not chosen by our past leaders.  But they did run with these nicknames, and rode them to success... or failure...




Moving on...



Although this might have not affected his talent, what if Lawrence Bird led the Celtics to 3 NBA Championships... Lawrence Legend???



How unbelievably Irish sounding is William O'Reilly?



Can you teach me how to Douglas?



As discussed with the presidents above, we have had many people who were a success with interchangeable monikers.  Jonathan Taylor Thomas made schoolgirls swoon in the mid-90s with as many as three names, and as few as three letters 'JTT.' 



Name interchangers like William Jefferson 'Bill' Clinton, Dwight 'Ike' Eisenhower, and JTT above only serve to be the exception that proves the rule, and it is always more amusing to find notable figures with “Poor Namesmanship.”


The more you think about this, the more you realize how easily the fate of the popular world could have been altered.  The way we have been influenced has been influenced by simple P&A.  What you go by can easily determine what you sell, where you place, and how you're remembered. 

Perhaps it is Darwinian, and perhaps there is something to be said about Nomenclature Selection.



Thomas and Gerald?

Natural Dudesaster 001

The Dudebacle


After hours of getting ready for a night out, which in many a dude's case consists of drinking a high volume of cheap beer, watching your choice of televised sport (except lacrosse)1, and playing something that probably resembles a card game; a certain intoxicated dude can no longer feign the signs of inebriation and becomes an extreme liability to the rest of his mates.

These signs of inebriation are in no way subtle.  This guy has developed a lazy eye, he's now unable to suppress commonly suppressible bodily functions, and the volume of his voice has increased nearly two-fold.

You should have seen all of this coming from the very beginning of the night.

While you were playing "Drink at your Own Pace," this dude was pounding beers like Wade Boggs.

By the time you were on beer five, he was on case two.

While you and your buds were figuring out what bar to hit up, this guy was contemplating getting a full-body tattoo.

The consequences for his actions have slowly started to come together, and his night has quickly started to fall apart...


By the time your party leaves for the bar, this dude has at least 100 liquid ounces of draft in his gullet, and may be quite unpredictable once he hits the streets. He's already made mortal enemies with the cabby, and was nearly drilled by an oncoming car as he left the taxi without paying.


Following your exit from the cab, you and your crew head to the street and on to the bar, but this drunken dude stumbles toward the sewer.  As he leans over in heaving position, you think to yourself, 'why in the hell didn't we stop this?'

All of these precursory events lead to the inevitable dudebacle, which appears swift and sudden to the untrained eye.  All you can do is one of two things at this point.  You can sit back and observe, or you can attempt to be there for your buddy, who has now become the most elusive and out-of-control person you have ever encountered.


At this point, he probably reeks of beer vomit and partially digested nachos, and is not afraid of the opposite sex in the slightest.  This walking disaster zone goes for any opportunity, regardless of whether or not it is an opportunity.  He says and does things that are well beyond the line of social decency, and the ramification of his behavior will indirectly affect you and the rest of your group (permitting he remembers that he came to the bar with you and your party).  You may meet new people on this night, and your unintended icebreaker becomes "Do you know this dude?"


You enter the bar, and somehow the bouncer has let him slide by.  As soon as he reaches an opening, he's gone.  He has disappeared among the abyss of collared shirts and cocktail dresses.  After a thorough scan of the bar, he appears to be unable to find.  You see women scattered all over the bar and dance floor, but while 'girls just wanna have fun,' you know that this dude just wants to get drunk.  His sidewalk sewer heave wasn't enough to slow him down in the slightest, and when you finally figure out just where he is, he's at the bar ordering shots for what is either a mildly attractive older woman, or a desperate transvestite.


Eventually, the dudebacle hits your buddy hard, and the following day hangover is usually a brutal experience for this dude who dared to put his body through such acute chemical punishment.


Luckily enough, the dudebacle is only a category 2 dudesaster, and during the next day reflection, you find that the faux pas from the night before need only require about two weeks worth of redemption for your currently crestfallen friend. The most important concept is to raise awareness of the early signs of the dudebacle: the voice volume demodulation, the belching, the slurring rants about politics and what seems to sound like baseball.  For at least these reasons, it remains paramount to record the humiliating feats accomplished by your completely wasted crony on the night before, in order to help him relive it the day after.


Shame however, is not a powerful enough learning experience for your nocturnally embarrassing friend. Make sure that he doesn't live this experience down in an effort to hope that it doesn't happen again.  If it does somehow happen again, your residence should be dudebacle-proofed for retaliatory purposes with an emergency drawer containing assorted permanent markers, a pantry stocked with chocolate syrup, and a fire extinguisher.


The next time this happens, let it happen... and as soon as this dude passes out... let him have it!







1.  No disrespect intended to Virginians, wealthy New Yorkers, or douche bags.

Slade: Time Traveler

So far into the future, that he’s from the past.  1230 Read introduces: Slade, Time Traveler.

Born roughly 10,000 years into the future, and having suffered through one 28 year coma, and a millennia-length cryopreservation, Slade has come back in time to tell his story. But due to time-traveler fatigue, 1230 Read will do their best to pen it.

Each and every time paradox be damned, Slade has just re-emerged from the year 3011. Still smelling of hyper-nitrogenized ectoplasm, Slade is here in 2011, to relay a general message encrypted with highly sensitive data. And to future the future of time paradoxes.

Slade does not own one v-necked article of clothing. He is like nothing that has ever travelled back in time from the futurity. He knows nothing of flying cars, hovercraft, pill-sized meal portions, or galactic conquest. Slade however, has survived both of Earth’s apocalypses, and has learned to weather the rigors of the predictable and subsequent tribal cannibalism that typically follow.

During one of his travels, sometime in the year 3011, Slade was downloaded. At that time, as surprising at is sounds, a technology once thought to be obsolete was revived. The floppy disk had not only made an unbelievably ridiculous recovery, but had also realized its full potential. For three months in the summer of Thirty-Eleven, Slade was in fact, a floppy disk. He was green, and read-only.

Later on that year, on June 27th to be exact, Slade was finally himself again... for the most part. It’s not that he wasn’t himself in appearance or personality, it was that by this time, he was property of The Republic. The Republic took the liberty of uploading Slade back into the animate entity he was previously accustomed to. The Republic was a country of fiercely like-minded individuals who seceded from The Society shortly after the great debate of 2945. Sometime shortly after Mother Earth’s second apocalypse, it became common convention to settle disputes via debate. With most of the ingredients for explosive weaponry thoroughly stripped down to the Earth’s mantle, war just wasn’t economical at all anymore.

The next task thrust upon Slade was the first ever time travel experiment done under government supervision. Slade was still contractually obligated as a servant to the government through write protection from when he was a 3.5 inch floppy. His contract was to be up the very next day, but just like many schemes executed by The Republic, this one was quite dastardly. Why not send him back in time 1000 years so that he is effectively under edit-proof contractual control for another 1000 years and a day? What a dastardly scheme it was indeed.

That is what brings Slade here, to present day Asia, high up into the Ural mountains. Please take note that in a thousand years time, the surface of the Earth goes through many topographical and locational changes. Luckily enough for Slade, Time Traveler, he is biologically well equipped for cold temperatures. When you’ve been frozen for an entire millennium, a few degrees below zero is not the least bit distressing.

So how is Slade from the past? The answer to that is actually pretty simple. While fleeing from Julius Caesar over a dispute of domestic animal malnourishment, Slade found his escape in a time rift that was created by The Republic in their first ever time travel experiment over three thousand years later. You’re probably thinking: wait, wouldn’t this be the second time travel experiment conducted by The Republic? No. It was the first, since that is how Slade arrived in The Republic’s custody in the first place.

Now, you’re probably thinking: but wait, wouldn’t that prove it’s the second, and the earlier experiment described was the first? Wrong again. Slade travelled into the future through an alternate dimension via a circuitous path along a time rift and came to a stop in the year 3095 and on Republic soil. This probably leads you to surmise that this is just one big contradiction.

That is incorrect as well. Recall earlier in this article, but later in time, when Slade was downloaded onto a floppy disk? Well, in the future, you can download software from the future. Therefore, at the effective time, this was The Republic’s first time travel experiment. Not until Slade was downloaded from the future and then uploaded into the past did the earlier experiment take place after the first experiment. Let the Eureka effect settle in.

Thankful to have escaped from the clutches of Caesar, Slade did not quite understand how this miraculous event would quickly turn into misfortune.

Slade would travel 3000 years in the future to only leap back 1000 years into the past and arrive sometime around 2000 years ahead of what he once called the present.

Slade grew up in the ancient Roman empire, but was born in the year 12000, just prior to the Earth’s third and final apocalypse. Knowing of this impending apocalypse, Slade’s mother and father had a decision to make. Do they take Slade with them to Venus, and see if the newborn can survive extended space travel and the extreme volcanic climate of Venus? Or do they send him so far back into the past that it is nearly impossible for him to experience even one apocalypse of Earth and possibly hear the music of Justin Bieber? Slade’s parents chose the latter.

While the pod carrying Slade’s mother and father went on to Venus, a separate pod carrying Slade and copious freeze-dried breast milk reserves travelled opposite the Earth’s rotation and orbited her at great speed in order to reach his historic destination.

The pod of Slade came to a fiery landing on the coastline of the ancient Persian Gulf. The year was 93 B.C. and the climate was arid and wholly brutal. The pod finally came to rest in its newly formed crater, two telescoping hydraulic poles extended to open the hatch in a hissing canopy-like fashion...

TO BE  CONTINUED...

The North American Meathead

Treat this introductory passage as if you’re viewing the back of a sports card:

North American Meathead

IQ: 94

Body Fat %: 3.2

Average Pick-up Line:

“Are you listening to Coldplay too? Haha, just kidding, I was listening to Seether!”

Typical Gym Wardrobe: Wife Beater and Wind Pants

Juicebox, Juicehead, Gorilla, Ox, Roidhead, Beefcake, although many a moniker, none is more specifically accurate nor geographically precise than the title of “North American Meathead.”

They slam barbells to the ground nearly as loud as they grunt when lifting them. They keep a four month supply of whey protein in their gym locker. They have the personality of a dust mop. They have perfect teeth, and to top it all off, they “suds up” with Axe body wash and deodorize with body spray.

Now don’t fret if you do one of the above things, the rule of bicep here is one of totality. If you do all of those above things, or display at least 90 percent of the aforementioned characteristics (and you live in North America), you might have cause for concern. You might just be a North American Meathead.

Is it time for a protein shake? Or are you just happy to see me? Anyone who has ever purchased a gym membership knows the type. There’s Vinnie the Vasodilator, Jake the Juicer, and of course, Brock the Block. Yeah, each gym has one.

Highly vascular and half masculine, the North American Meathead has a surplus of distinguishing characteristics. A deep dark tan, tattoos, and hair gel layer the landscape of these barbell behemoths. They are as noticeable as their stereotype is perpetuating.

A perplexing characteristic however, is the incredible ability of the North American Meathead to imbibe incredible amounts of alcohol, yet still maintain such a “cut” physique. In the lexicon of a meathead, you’ll notice re-occurring terms such as: cut, ripped, pumps, nitro, and even the occasional HUURRRGH as they exaggerate a shrugging of their shoulders in one of the many mirrors lining your typical fitness center walls.

Pride and vanity flow from the exterior just as readily as FDA non-approved supplements flow through the interior when regarding the North American Meathead. But let’s get back to the alcohol, for this is what cements the North American Meathead into the driveway of Dude. Just like you and me, the NAMH likes to let loose from time to time with a few brews, wells, rails, and gin tonics. Sometimes just as aggressively, and most of the time, twice as belligerently.

Perhaps it’s the powdered diet that counterbalances the negative aesthetic body shaping consequences of alcohol. When taking lean muscle mass blasters and fat shredders, how can alcohol possibly have a chance to become fattening?  At this point, alcohol is probably the only natural chemical flowing through their body.  But still, the curious observation remains... just how do they keep that skinny-legged, triangle-torsoed figure AND still drunkenly own the dance floor each and every Friday night.  Maybe they burn these excess calories doing fist pumps...

Either way, let's just keep in mind that attending the gym 6 days a week and twice a day is not easy. So before you think that Meatheads are not hardworking individuals, just realize that that is not true. It’s just that they are more narcissistic than you ever will be. They’ll show more results than a mid 90s Bowflex model, and their graphic tees will appear to be vacuum sealed about their chest. But keep this in mind at all times that this is a lifestyle decision. You have your rights and they have theirs, and if you feel like they infringe upon yours, then feel free to let them know.

As the age old adage goes: you should never judge a book by its cover, your local NAMH could even be a nice guy, even if he is constantly bulging, and even if he reeks of cocoa scented tanning butter.

NARS

New Essay.  New format.  Passage-by-passage, line-by-line, and name-by-name, this Essay will introduce and discuss the Name/Age Range System, or NARS.

A son is born, his parents name him William.  Many people will eventually call him Bill.  There is only one problem...  "Baby Bill" does not exactly have a ring to it.  Neither does an infant named William.  Of course, when William gets older, he will more than likely 'grow into' his name.  In his 30s, some people may even call him Bill in casual conversation. 

That's the weird thing about names.  They don't always fit.  Some names are great for the first few years of life.  Jacob, Joshua, Jayden, and Dakota are great names for those that are still wet behind the ears.  But as they get older, their identity, as well as the aesthetic representation of their name tend to go in different directions.


When you think about this way more than you should, you lend yourself to the question:  what is an optimal age range for a name?  If this doesn't pop-out to you as self-explanatory, the mission of this article is to examine the range of age in which a name appears most appropriate for a person.  Whether it is when we address them, think about them, or speak of them to others.

For instance, consider the name Michael.  A 'Michael' can also go by 'Mike.'  But how comfortable do you feel calling a 4 year old boy "Mike?"  I personally would rather call him Michael. 

Taking this simple thought into further progression, I have devised a Name/Age Range System (NARS).  Although concerning a topic subjective in nature, NARS will hopefully serve to help some of us who want to feel more comfortable in casually addressing someone who has a multi-monikered name.  All we need to know is what age range they fall into, and we can apply NARS for ourselves.  NARS also may help those of us who are curious as to what version of our name we should go by according to the NARS database.  The headlining benefits of this system being that NARS will help us determine when a name is most vogue, marketable, profitable, and/or just plainly appropriate.




Here we go... line-by-line:

Let's start with the name Jerry.  Jerry is a weird name for an elderly person as well as a young boy.  However, the name Jerry really hits its stride for males aged 33-49.  In this age range, the name Jerry seems very appropriate.  Belonging to a person outside of that age range, the name "Jerry" just doesn't quite seem to fit.   

I will now introduce the parentheses that will help denote age ranges, and will aid in brevity.

Here is the example from above in NARS notation:  Jerry (33-49).

With this newfound notation, we will breakdown names by their variations followed by their appropriate ranges.

Other names in the NARS database just flat out exude youth.  For example:  Chris (13-34).

Chris is also an easily manipulated name.  Let's look at 4 variations. 

Chris, Christopher, Christian, and Topher. 

Let's say someone born with the name Christopher would like to optimize the age appropriateness of their name throughout their lifespan.

NARS recommends this:  Christopher (0-3; 52-demise)  Topher (4-12),  Chris (13-34),  Christian (35-51).

Note that the name 'Christopher' had a dual range set.  This means that between the ages of 0-3, and the ages of 52 until death, it is best to go by "Christopher."  All of this according to NARS.


A few more NARS analyses:

David (0-14; 54-demise), Dave (15-53)

Jacob (0-11; 29-33), Jake (12-28, 34-demise)

Jeff (18-demise), Jefferey (3-17),  Jeffie (0-2), Geoff (never)

John (0-3; 17-22; 47-demise), Johnny (4-16; 23-46), Johnny-boy  (11)

Now you may have noticed some overlap.  In this case, we could call John either "Johnny-boy" or "Johnny" at age 11, and it would be equally acceptable to NARS.

Also you may be asking, why was it better for "Johnny" to be a "John" from the ages of 17-22?  The answer to this can actually be fetched from the first few lines of the NARS algorithm.  John will most likely be applying for colleges, jobs, and sending out career resumes during that period in his life.  Therefore between the ages of 17 and 22, it's best to go by "John."

Some of us may not have a NARS name.  For those of you named Paul, Luke (not Lucas), and Craig, you're gonna have to sit this one out.

However, if your name is any variation of "Robert," you run a 1 in 3 chance of crashing the NARS mainframe.

In lack of a segue, here comes the most difficult and bandwidth absorbing analysis of them all: 

"The Bob-Bobby-Robby-Rob-Robert-Bert Superfecta"


After 30 seconds of data-crunching, here are the NARS results:


Bob (39-61), Bobby (8-13; 22-26), Robby (0-7; 13-19; 25-32), Rob (19-33), Robert (6-10; 55-demise), Bert (9-13, 88-92).  

If your computer just when through a period of sloth-like response time, you can blame it on another Robert retrieving truckloads of data from NARS.



Although the NARS algorithm may not be the final opinion on name usage and timing, it may still be a voice worthy of hearing when one considers how their name affects their environment.  Some people don't put any thought into their name and how they're perceived.  Many people just left that up to their parents.  But if you are one of the others, or if you are just plain curious about this concept, then when you consider a name.... Nominate NARS.



Hope you enjoyed the article, and if you have any names you'd like to submit to the NARS motherboard, please comment, or send an email to 1230read@gmail.com.





Okay, okay, I'm not that sexist.


NARS analyzes girl's names too!

Michelle (7-9; 14-demise), Shelly (0-6; 11-13)

Roberta (0-12; 60-demise), Berta (13-16), Bobbie (17-59)

Catherine (0-2; 51-demise), Cathy (24-50), Catie (3-23)

Elizabeth (0-16; 43-demise), Lisa (35-42), Lizzy (17-19), Eliza (20-23) Beth (24-34).