Long ago, I adopted the view that there ARE no funny jokes about people's names.

For instance, my own last name, "Oesterreich". It's German up to here, and it's the German word for Austria. I was brought up pronouncing it, not as in German, but "OH-strich".

I wish I had a nickel for every time some clod made an alleged joke to the effect, "Oh, ostrich, huh? Go bury your head in the sand." And it's always delivered with the bland assumption that the speaker has discovered something witty that was fresh and original in the world.

Frankly, that assumption is what galls--the idea that the "joke" is original, when I've been shuddering at it for seventy years.   At least that "joke" is not one that is insulting on its face; it's merely tiresome. Unto death.

The examples that could be related are constant and all around us. I cringe at the examples that come up based on the names of others almost as much as ones (there are more) perpetrated at my expense.

Your experience and comments?

Dave Oesterreich