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REAL ESTATE Fred, Fred, Fred: Thompson's Challenge Has a Name By Monica Hesse Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, August 12, 2007; D01 In the swampy soup of hopefuls for the 2008 presidential election, there is a man with a funny name. It has the tonal quality of something being dropped on the floor, something heavy and damp-ish. com, a "Fred" is defined as "a person who does stupid, annoying, or idiotic things" (Fred Flintstone, Fred Mertz).
There has never before been a major presidential candidate named Fred. But Alfred, being all British and Batman-y, is not the same. Then, out of almost nowhere, came Thompson, who is transcending the notion of Fred. Recent media accounts of the guy (who has not yet officially announced his candidacy) would have us believe that being a Fred means Law & Orderly sex-in-a-suit, a name exuding such flypaper pheromones that people find themselves helplessly drawn in.
London's Sunday Times last month interviewed a bevy of his ex-girlfriends, all of whom have drunk the Fred-Aid: "He's majestic," said country singer/Fredophile Lorrie Morgan. "Women love a soft place to lay and a strong pair of hands to hold us." Is there something about the craggy actor we're not getting?
Or maybe the name Fred is etymologically close to obviously sexy names like Dirk, Clint, James? Grant Smith is an onomastician at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, who studies the branch of linguistics dedicated to proper names. He specializes in dissecting the monikers of political candidates and says he has a 65 percent success rate of predicting elections, based solely on name analysis. Not entirely convincing, but those odds would play in Vegas. The name Fred does not suggest blatant sexuality at all." Thompson is a name with natural trochaic rhythm, which replicates a heartbeat and thus starts building appeal in the womb. Going by Fred, he still has amassed a clan of pitter-patter, all-a flutter followers.
Los Angeles phone book for Freds and sending out a 500-person mailing. There are 5,000 Freds in the organization now, but Daniel must fight for every member. "Unfortunately, Fred has fast fallen out of favor," he laments. From 1885 to 1896, it was the 15th-most-popular boy's baby name. But the last time Fred appeared in the top 1,000 was 2002. Onomasticians know that names reach points of saturation, points where every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Fred. So once 20- and 30-somethings forget that monikers like Emily and Jacob (the top boy and girl names for 2006) have actually been around for centuries, they start to use them again. The Fred Society is attempting to speed up the rebirth of Fred with aggressive campaigning: bumper stickers reading "Name your next baby Fred," coffee mugs that are "Built Fred Tough," postcards from Fredhenge and Freddywood.
"We at the Fred Society are overjoyed that he might be running for president, because he'll skyrocket the name," says Daniel. We can't afford to alienate one single Fred -- Democrat or Republican." And as a fellow Fred, can Daniel understand Thompson's overwhelming appeal? We are willing to admit that that some people find Fred Thompson, yes, sexy. What does it signify that we, as a country, are choosing to deem yummy a guy named Fred? Motivational speaker Mark Sanborn has a theory about that. Sanborn is the author of 2004's "The Fred Factor" (not to be confused with the same-titled Fred Thompson bio released this May).
Denver who delights in performing his unheralded job well. Sanborn wrote "The Fred Factor" to extol the pleasures of hard work, which he says the name represents. "It might be dated, but the time we date it back to, the 1950s, was a very bucolic one. The love of Fred Thompson is like the comfort food renaissance -- a longing for green bean casserole. If the name Fred were popular now, we wouldn't be able to long for it. But it's not, so we do, and ordinary "Fred" seems as exotic as Mick Jagger.
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