June 06, 2003

An embarrassment of Dr. Franks

One of the two blogger-proprietors of the Atrios-endorsed Tom DeLay-hating, Krugman-boosting, Stinging Nettle is named "DrFrankLives."

The blogosphere is a big tent, and there's room for multiple Dr. Franks, I guess, even if one of them has a tendency to write posts with titles like "Krugman Nails It... as Usual." (For real.)

I get a lot of email from punk rock kids who have chosen names like this for their email addresses, as a kind of "tribute"-- e.g., drfrankrocks@greendayisrad.com. Perhaps it is an indication of just how overweening is my own vanity that that was my first, mistaken, assumption when I was directed to the blog by a concerned reader.

But according to DrFrankLives (who apparently got his start as a regular Atrios commenter) the pseudonym is a reference to an unspecified figure from North Carolina political history. I wonder if this North Carolinian Dr. Frank was so-called because (a) Young Frankenstein was a popular movie at the time, and easily lent itself to being recycled as a schoolyard taunt, later shortened for convenience? And (b) because of an unfortunate tendency to lecture others in a pedantic, hectoring manner no matter what the topic? And (c) because he used it as his air name at his college radio station, and as a "stage name" in his punk rock band? Fancy that...

Posted by Dr. Frank at June 6, 2003 11:01 AM | TrackBack