Frank: Part of the reason I created this thread was to get the specific, and unique names our mods/admins have given to the Top Primitives. Is there a list somewhere?
I was away for a couple of days; sorry.
I assume when you say "specific and unique names," you're referring to monickers such as
MRS. ALFRED PACKER or
DOUG'S STUPID EX-WIFE or
OSCAR WILDE, THE LARGE-PROBOSCISED PRIMITIVE or
PEDRO PICASSO or
THE BIRD-SMACKING STONED RED-FACED PRIMITIVE or
THE ANTI-OSTEOPATHIC PRIMITIVE or
EARLG, LORD MARBLEHEAD or &c., &c., &c.
The Bostonian Drunkard, the unappellated eohippus, my fellow alum Skins, the subway cat, &c., &c., &c.
Those are nicknames for particular primitives I create myself, and anyone else is equally free to do so.
I started doing this a few years ago when I found the official primitive screen-names lacking in imagination and devoid of any hints about what the primitive is like as a person.
And some names the primitives name themselves are just downright stupid.
So I re-baptize them.
"sfexpat2000" was just a bunch of vomited random letters and words; "Doug's stupid ex-wife" gave her a
persona, gave some depth to her, gave the reader an idea of what she is really like.
The first "alternative name" I created--and I still consider it my very best creation--was "Fat Che," for the "benburch" primitive; that was a very long time ago, at our old home. I don't think I've ever topped "Fat Che," when it comes to giving a clear concise "picture" of a primitive.
Some of the re-names are no-brainers, such as "Mrs. Alfred Packer" for the "hippywife" primitive or "Pedro Picasso" for the "Atman" primitive or "my fellow alum Skins" for "Skinner" or "the defrocked warped primitive" for "warpy." Those re-names came to mind as easily as strawberries-and-cream.
Some primitives are difficult to re-name, though; for two years, I've wrestled with what would make a more realistic name for the "tularetom" primitive, one of the most selfish, greedy, and hypocritical primitives on Skins's island, and I still haven't come up with anything even remotely decent.
Jut because I give a primitive a new name doesn't mean it's a top primitive, or even a PoP (Primitive of Prominence); there's plenty of obscure non-PoPs whom I've re-christened. It means only that I've been able, through the comments of a particular primitive, to discern something special about a primitive, something that sets a primitive apart from all the other primitives (the
unterprimitiven, the faceless lynch mob, the amorphous blob, that is 99.9% of Skins's island).
I suppose I'm trying to "humanize" individual primitives, to differentiate them.
The anthropologist Margaret Mead did the same thing.
If anyone ever wants to know the origins of a primitive re-name, one is always free to ask.
