A.Word.A.Day -- AWADmail Issue 1002

I have a friend who’s husband’s name is Kevin. He is exactly 6’ tall. She measures things in Kevins, both full and partial Kevins.
-Liisa Beckman, Saint Anthony, Minnesota (beckm012 umn.edu)

When we started making Toy Story I was the entire Layout department. We soon realized that one person was not going to keep up with setting up shots for all the animators, so I started getting help. One of the very first was Ewan Johnson, who ended up being a very helpful and skilled artist. By the middle of production I noticed that a lot of his camera suggestions involved either translating the camera a bit right and then panning left, or translating left and panning right. In other words, getting a slightly different perspective from one side or the other of the character we were focusing on. I started calling those Ewans, as in “Let’s Ewan the camera to the left” which eventually became simply “Ewan left”.
We kept using that verb for years after Ewan was no longer in the department and, as I recall, even after he left Pixar.
-Craig Good, Vallejo, California (clgood me.com)

I made a dress for my four-year-old granddaughter, Mabel, and embroidered a large M on the front. She tried it on and looking down from above, disappointedly pointed out that her name started with M, not W. Misreading letters or numbers in this way are now known as Mabelisms in my family. A recent one was a mystery over a pie in the freezer with a pastry W on the top. It turned out to be meat.
-Gill Sims, Warwick, UK (oboeplayer hotmail.co.uk)

Many years ago an elderly friend named Margaret Gump came to our house every Sunday to join us for a home-made soup and crusty bread lunch. Margaret, having lived alone her entire adult life, was set in her ways and she liked her soup hot. Really hot. It was not unusual for her to ask me to heat up her soup just seconds after I served it to her. Decades later I occasionally ask my wife if her soup is hot enough. She usually replies “Yes, its fine. But its not Margaret Gump hot.” Soup at any temperature reminds us of a good friend from long ago.
-Bob Bauer, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (rincon1906 icloud.com)

When my husband and I were university students, we had a friend named Ellis. He was a kind and personable man who would never say a bad word to anyone. One day we presented him with an idea that he didn’t think was very good. Another person might have said, “Oh, that will never fly; it’s a bad idea.” But Ellis said “Hmmm, that’s (pause) interesting”. Henceforth, regarding a bad idea or bad anything, we say, “That’s interesting (pause) in an Ellisian sense”.
-Anne Robinson, Sherwood Park, Canada (al.robin9 gmail.com)

My dear mother was one of three very buxom sisters. Her maiden name was Thompson. I am one of three girls and when we were reaching maturity, it was very clear that my older sister and my younger sister inherited the Thompsonesque look and I did not. We three coined the word and use it to whisper to each other when we see a buxom woman. “She’s Thompsonesque!”
-Cindy Haynes, Bedford, Massachusetts (cbdhaynes gmail.com)

When I got married, long ago, last century, in France, my wife had an old aunt we called tante Simone. When the old lady was introduced to me, I was told she had been a beauty and my younger self found the whole idea preposterous. She would always come to family meetings with her comfortable garden chair that we called a tante Simone chair. She has been long dead but the family has purchased multiple chairs we still call “tante Simone”. I am the proud owner of a couple of tante Simones.
-Paul Varotsis, London, UK (paul varotsis.plus.com)

I once worked with a very large man whose last name was Lutz. Mr. Lutz was 6’6” tall and weighed 395 pounds. Our close circle of colleagues soon began to use Lutz as a unit of measure. “I think this elevator is rated at no more than six Lutz.” Mr. Lutz thought the whole thing amusing.
-Robert Sytek, Hilliard, Ohio (rjsytek gmail.com)

My ex had a fabulous tally of five separate vehicle collisions, over a couple of years, where he was waiting behind a car to pull out from a junction. Every time, he looked down the road, saw the way was clear, and pulled out -- only to smash into the back of the vehicle in front that had yet to exit the junction. Apparently it’s not always possible to learn through experience! Fortunately no injuries, but this type of collision became known as a Thomas throughout the local police force.
-Andrea Levett, Langford, UK (andrealevett hotmail.co.uk)

As a dog sitter, I see many dog personalities. There is one type who act like angels while I’m watching, but when my back is turned they will nudge and provoke another dog, try to steal someone else’s food, or coerce another dog to join them in sneaky mischief. When caught, they always look at me with wide innocent eyes and around at the other dogs as if to say “Which one of you did that?” Those dogs are my Eddie Haskells.
-Suzanne Carpenter, New Jersey (suzcarpenter verizon.net)

Sitting around a table for eight at the North Rim Lodge of the Grand Canyon, my mother-in-law asked her (now third ex-) husband to pass the coffee. He grabbed the pot and poured himself some first, draining it. Now when we ask a family member to pass something at the dinner table, we add, “Don’t LLoyd it.”
-Dweeb Zappa (via online comments)

Our last name is Houck. We regularly took our computer to the same local shop for repair. The owner told us that it had too many firewalls, protections, and whatnot loaded onto it. Later we found out that for years they referred to overloaded computers as having been Houcked.
-Sally Houck (via website comments)

When my family stays at a hotel, if one of us goes to shower and all the towels have been used, leaving only wet towels, we say that person has been Del Griffithed (after Del Griffith, played brilliantly by John Candy) in the movie Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
-Heather Jones (via website comments)

My family name IS Johnson. Occasionally, when frustrating circumstances arise, e.g., dealing with an inept person (family members not excluded) or following a daisy chain of phone call holds and transfers, my patience runs out and I react. I overreact. That usually involves storming out of a store or hanging up precipitously. Inevitably, I am the one who suffers from this action, as I ultimately have to start the phone call over or return to the store to buy what I needed. I have three brothers. We share this unfortunate tendency. Our children call this “going Johnson”, as in “The salesperson kept pushing the warranty until Pop went all Johnson on him.”
-Jamie Johnson, Wellington, Texas (jamieojd gmail.com)

Being in an assisted living residence, sadly, we lose friends too often. One friend, Shirley, is by her daughter in an Alzheimer’s unit. While she was with us, she would forget to leave her napkin at the table. When one of us forgets to leave our napkin, we are being Shirley.
-Maureen Doyle, Brighton, Massachusetts (momcdo gmail.com)

As observant Jews, my family is part of a similar community. For the Passover holiday, it is traditional to thoroughly clean the house of all forms of leaven; the kitchen gets an especially thorough cleaning. About a week before Passover one year, our friends the Levins lamented that their electric stove had died. They were going shopping for a new stove, but at the last minute, they decided to ask an electrician friend to take a look at it. He quickly determined that in their cleaning under the stove, they had knocked the plug loose. Since then, whenever something fails to function because it is unplugged, we say it is Levinned.
-Bill Landau, Potomac, Maryland (pcguru.landau gmail.com)

In the Seattle Gilbert and Sullivan Society there was a chorus member whose surname was McCall who always tried to maneuver herself so that she was front stage center. During a rehearsal, another chorus member tried to be front and center. The director turned to someone and said, “Look, she’s pulling a McCall!”
-Wesley Aman (via online comments)

Decades ago, we had a roommate named Dave who ran afoul of the law in a minor way. At that time, he was sentenced to community service that consisted of picking up trash alongside the highway. From that day to this my family refers to those workers as Daves.
-Elizabeth Kingson, Portland, Oregon (ekingson gmail.com)

In the card game of cribbage, getting zero points in a “crib”, while not overly rare, was unlucky. One of the regular cribbage players during my graduate year of college got more than his share of zeroes. His last name was Sweeney. For years, we called a zero crib a Sween.
-Dave Alden, Petaluma, California (davealden53 comcast.net)

A golfing buddy, Ray Harris, often comments on the result of a golf shot long before the results can be determined. After a swing, Ray will often say, “Good shot!”, and the ball quickly turns and goes into a bunker, out of bounds, or into a terrible lie. Ray is immediately blamed for the change of direction - you and your ball have been Harrissed.
-Glenn Camp, Southern Pines, North Carolina (gtcamper me.com)

Growing up in a small southern Ohio steel mill town of middle-to-lower-class families, most kept their homes neat and tidy. One family, though, the Fletchers, kept their structure and surrounds in disarray -- a real eyesore. For 65 years now whenever anyone in my family sees such a place, it’s a Fletchers.
-Paula McRorie. Mooresville, North Carolina (paulamac52 aol.com)

My husband (now in his 60s) went to school with a guy named Mike Kolter who used to regularly nod off during class. It got so pronounced that, if anyone nodded off, in any context, all the other guys said, “Oh, you’re pulling a Mike Kolter!” It still goes on today!
-Jackie Diehl, Houston, Texas (bestblockmom yahoo.com)

One of our childhood playmates named Cassie never grasped the point of a joke, especially the “knock, knock, who’s there?” jokes. Thus the word “Cassie” began as someone who didn’t get a. joke. It later morphed into any pointless joke, which then became known as a Cassie.
-Fran Glica, Lansdale, Pennsylvania (fhrg comcast.net)

My father, Edward, had the uncanny ability and/or good fortune to be able to find a parking space immediately adjacent to his destination. My husband, our kids, and I now refer to such parking spots as Edward spaces.
-Banna Rubinow, Oswego, New York (bannarubinow gmail.com)

Your request for an eponymous word from our lives brought to mind a word that only my husband and I share. Years ago, while renting a house in our early 20s, we had a housemate, Jimmy, who would often (always?) leave the kitchen cabinet doors wide open. So, if we ever enter a room and a cabinet door is open, we say, “Was Jimmy here?” or more often, “Who did a Jimmy?” or “Jimmy!”
-Robin Courtney Hadden, Huntington, Vermont (robin restinglion.com)

Aunt Frances was a master of the guilt trip. Now, when my sister and I are tempted to do the same, we remind each other: “Don’t pull a Frances.”
-Judith Fritsch, Yonkers, New York (hnjfritsch gmail.com)

Several years ago when my children were involved in youth ice hockey, one of the parents enjoyed pointing out that a two-goal lead was “the most dangerous lead in hockey”. Ever since then, such a point differential has been known to us as a Geiger lead, after our friend.
-Marco E. Graves, Portland, Maine (marcograves hotmail.com)

Here is an eponym from real life; Knoxism. Knox Martin is a living legend in the art world. In fact, he had a museum exhibition at the Arlington Museum of Art in Texas, entitled “Knox Martin, Living Legend”, last year. He also taught at the Art Students League in New York for 45 years. And he is very much loved and admired by his students and artist friends. He is 98. There are specific elements that he has gleaned from his intense study of art that he not only applies to his own work, but has imparted for all these years, and you can see these elements in his past student’s works today, and they are so refreshing to see. The top one is, carry a tube of white, because the use of white in a painting enlivens the whole work.
Another element is that all four corners are radically different. One more extremely important one is, the shapes in between are as charged as the forms they define. These are all demonstrable in the classes he is famous for. There are more elements, but the ones above are definite Knoxisms.
-Olivia Korringa, daughter, Old Tappan, New Jersey (Thetaland8 aol.com)

A couple of years ago, we were visiting cousins in Ireland and went to a local production of Harold Pinter’s No Man’s Land. If you haven’t seen it, don’t. It was well acted, but in the end had little or no meaning to any of us. Since then, any movie, TV show, or play that leaves us feeling no different than before it started, we call a Pinter. (Sorry Mr. Pinter. We have seen no other works by him, so can’t totally dismiss his talent.)
-Linda Karmann, Alanson, Michigan (lindakarmann hotmail.com)

I once worked with a software developer named Chumley. He was very smart but had a penchant for writing program code that was quite clever but very hard to follow, making it extremely difficult for other programmers to maintain. (He didn’t get the memo that says we shouldn’t write code for the computer to understand, we should write code for people to understand.) This was close to a decade ago, and to this day when we come across opaque program code with many layers of indirection and zero comments, we refer to that as Chumleyware.
-Walter Levy, Pikesville, Maryland (wlevy comcast.net)

When I was pregnant with my first son, many, many years ago, living in a tiny apartment with a minute kitchen near Regent’s Park, London, at one stage I was ordered to bed for a fortnight. A kind friend, Carmen, offered to come over on the middle Friday evening to help us through with her home-cooked potato omelet. And it was indeed delicious. We had never eaten better even in my mother-in-law’s commodious Madrid home. Altogether, a thoroughly enjoyable evening. After our sending Carmen off with muchisimas affectionate gracias, my husband went into the kitchen and -- it’s told that it would have taken a magnifying glass to find one speck of wall, ceiling, table, chair, appliance, or cookbook that hadn’t participated in the preparation. So, not quite an eponym, rather, an eponymosity, from then on, a kind deed not totally free of complications has been known as a Carmenada. The gratitude is dominant, but --
-Christine San Jose, Honesdale, Pennsylvania (csj1501 gmail.com)

When someone was really annoying my father, he’d declare they were “a pain in the benish”. It wasn’t until I became an adult and actually asked him where the word benish came from that I learned it was the last name of a very bad boss he’d once had. Until that moment, I’d imagined it was a Yiddish word for butt.
-Christine Aiello, Haslett, Michigan (christine.r.aiello gmail.com)

You know how the rearview mirror in a car has a little toggle allowing the driver to adjust it so that, for example, someone else’s headlights won’t shine directly into her eyes? That’s called a stang-thing. Coined after Fr. Charles Stang, SJ, my high school physics professor who explained how light traveled and what that mirror did with it. I didn’t last long in his course, but the word my friend Charlie and I created in his honor lives on.
-Tom Mullooly, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (TMullooly foley.com)

My husband’s first name was Hoyt. As a child he had a reputation of being contentious and forever causing chaos. In the family such behavior was called being Hoyty.
-Jean Ellsworth, Visalia, California (toheandme sbcglobal.net)

My grandparents had acquaintances named Webb who were ungenerous. When offering around a plate of cookies, for example, they’d say “Take a lot. Take two.” So Webby became a synonym for stingy or thin. For example, my grandparents used powdered milk at their cabin. When my grandfather mixed up a batch that had too much water in it, my grandmother would say “Oh, this milk is Webby.”
-Paul Harris, Hastings on Hudson, New York (paul.harris harrisdevelop.com)