Answering a comment

I have no idea who "FP" is because his/her profile is private and he/she posted their comment under what I'm sure was the wrong post but I'll respond anyway.

"FP" said: "Wow, there were a lot of nicknames in that post. I need Cliff's Notes"

I want to first mention that Cliff doesn't have notes, he knows the characters already, right Unc?

Sorry, inside joke. But, I think they are referring to my post about my Uncle Bookem's kids and the relationship we shared when we were young. What's most interesting about "FP's" comment is that the nicknames I used are all real. In fact, I think I may be the only one in my family that doesn't have a nickname. Bookem's really called Bookem. Tall Boy's really called Tall Boy and yes, I really call my kid Bam-Bam. We have a Kappy, a Chum, a Magee, a Muva, and a Brop. I don't know where the nicknaming started but it's one of those family things that we do to each other.

The other part of the comment that strikes me funny is that I can't understand why the nicknames make such a difference to the readers. Some people have weird names, right? I mean, there is one famous little girl named Apple Martin toddling around out there somewhere too. I personally think the choice of Apple with the last name Martin is just setting her up to be nicknamed "Apple Martini" but that's just me. Anyway, if I had replaced Bam-Bam with Apple, would you know whether I was using a nickname or not? Regardless of whether I use the nicknames or were to chose to use everyone's real name, how does that change how you read along? You don't know these characters anyway and if you do, you know their real names and can mentally interchange them while you read, right?

Interesting......