How the Suri Got Her Name (a semi-fable)

(as requested in an earlier discussion-thread)

All right, this goes back a few years. How many years? There was no LiveJournal. There was barely, in fact, an AOL. But there was GEnie (and back then it was GEnie, not Genie, so it means it was way long ago. But I digress).

And in those days, a few of us hung out on the X Files categories (this was before LiveJournal but after XF. Almost everything occured after XF). An a bunch of us became friends, and some of us specifically made plans to get together in Manhattan for a visit over the winter holidays.

I was one of them. Another was house_draven, who had never seen Manhattan at Christmastime before. So we showed her and the others around. Specifically, I insisted that we had to go to FAO Shwartz, because the world's most amazing toy store's most amazing outlet is even more amazing in December (assuming you can get in).

Anyway. We're walking through the stuffed animal section, squeeing over the cuteness, when I see a stuffie that is not the usual, run-of-the-mill, even for FAO Shwartz. And I look at it, and it looks at me, and there is a glimmer of recognition in both our eyes. So I pick it up, hold it next to my head, turn around, and say to house_draven and the others with us: "What do you think -- separated at birth?"

Once the hysterical laughter died down it was agreed that yes, there was a rather marked resemblance. And that probably would have been that. Except...

After we were done sightseeing, we went to another Major Tourist Spot: The Jeckyl & Hyde Club, which is a themed 'adventure' restaurant. The details of that dinner can be glossed over (all the participants have paid off and shredded the negatives by now, anyway) except to point out that in order to get to the bathrooms at the Club, you first hae to find them. Which can take some doing, including knowing which painting to move aside. And one of our party had been gone a rather long time, and we were concerned. So I stood up to see if I could see her coming back, through the crowd.

...

you know where this is going don't you?

...

Yeah.

Apparently, when I look around a crowd, I have a ...rather particular way of scanning the room. Comes from being short, and having to stretch in order to see anything. Anyway, someone (it may have been kradical, or house_draven, or someone else, saw this, and called out: "meerkat!"

And it stuck. And how.

Of all the nicknames I've ever had in my life, it's the only one that took on a life of its own. "Meer" became the handle most people on-line knew me by (or MK, for short), and soon spread into my RL friendships as well.

Okay, you're thinking...but how did we get to "suri?"

Simple. Meerkats were becoming popular, I guess, and suddenly everyone wanted it as their handle, or username. So when I got locked out of an e-mail address, I tried variations (hence: evilmeer on AIM). And one of the variations that hit was the Latin family name: Suricata suricattus. suri, for short (which, yes, I am).

And so, meerkat got a twin/evil/good sister, suri. And so it has been, down the ages since then.




Ironically, enough, the meerkat is NOT my totem creature. That, I've had since I was about twelve.