5 Years Later: The Name Game is Still the Same

Just over five years ago, I made a legal change to my name and became, officially, James Patrick Holding. But some thicker heads still haven't got the news.

At bottom of this post, you'll find a link to a TWeb thread I started shortly after he change to keep track of how long the thick heads didn't get the news. I attached a poll asking how long people thought it would go on with them continuing to use my former name. At the time, the options of five and ten years seemed like a bad joke. Five years later, it isn't: There are thick heads who still haven't got the news, and the latest (as of this post) is a YouTube pseudo-scholar designated TaylorX04, just a few days ago. And the hits just keep on comin'.

Why do the thick heads persist? For a time you could probably lay the blame, ironically, on Farrell "Forgotten" Till, whose Skeptical Review website featured an article about me in which he did the name rant (but failed to update it after I made the legal change).  Suckers everywhere -- whether Skeptics or putative Christians -- found this high in search engine rankings and took it at face value and as the last word. How ironic that Farrell's long-ago obsession with the issue came back with a vengeance upon the very people he was showing off for.

Of late, it appears Farrell's website has gone off the air -- and no one seems to care. I don't know if it'll ever be back, but as long as it is off, there will probably be less chance that the "ha ha, I know what your real name is" crowd will continue to make their mark in that thread.

Which is sort of a shame -- because that particular complaint always has been an easy way to mark off the ignorant and the uncritical who have nothing actually worthwhile to say.

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