What's in a name
This blog isn't about the European weatherfish , or about Japanese torpedos at Pearl Harbor , or about mythical creatures in How to Train your Dragon , or about a hovering autonomous submarine , or about a shipwreck tour based in Mystic, CT , or about a series of Australian crime novels , or a swim club in Naugatuck . Apparently other people think that thunderfish makes for a pretty cool name. Through a book club I belong to, I earned the moniker "Dr. Dick" while I was completing my PhD. Some of the guys in the club worried that the degree would go to my head and turn me into a elitist jerk, or even more of one. Fairly quickly "Thunder" was added to that name (because "thunder" is always a hilarious intensifier), and somehow it's stuck. To that group and nobody else, I am Dr. Thunder Dick. I like the name--or, at least, I like having a nickname. I was a serious kid, not the kind to want a nickname like Dr. Thunder Dick. Too crude, too flippant. Bu...