Henry has been the name of everyman: of writers, poets, and baseball players. It’s been the name of kings and holy roman emperors, more than 20 of them through the ages from Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, and England. It’s a name with some force to it and indeed a henry (symbol: H) is the unit of measurement for electromagnetic inductance. But in our house more importantly it’s the name of a little cartoon mouse with a yellow vest who is the needy cousin of Angelina the ballerina mouse, as well as the penguin friend of the colorful, kind octopus Oswald. Looming behind it all, Henry is the name of our former general contractor who somehow seemed to figure in almost every conversation in our home between November 2005 and about a year later, after which he’d disappeared with our repairs still only two-thirds complete. He loved our girls, built wonderful playhouses out of cardboard boxes from replacement cabinets, and certainly meant well. As were we all, he was just overwhelmed by his circumstances (not to mention the hapless, drunken in-laws upon who he needed to rely for a work crew). So arose a chorus when we told Dorothy and Clara about our plan and their little brother. “Let’s name him Henry!” Of course. Henry Xiaowei Corrigan.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
What's in a Name
Henry has been the name of everyman: of writers, poets, and baseball players. It’s been the name of kings and holy roman emperors, more than 20 of them through the ages from Portugal, Spain, Germany, France, and England. It’s a name with some force to it and indeed a henry (symbol: H) is the unit of measurement for electromagnetic inductance. But in our house more importantly it’s the name of a little cartoon mouse with a yellow vest who is the needy cousin of Angelina the ballerina mouse, as well as the penguin friend of the colorful, kind octopus Oswald. Looming behind it all, Henry is the name of our former general contractor who somehow seemed to figure in almost every conversation in our home between November 2005 and about a year later, after which he’d disappeared with our repairs still only two-thirds complete. He loved our girls, built wonderful playhouses out of cardboard boxes from replacement cabinets, and certainly meant well. As were we all, he was just overwhelmed by his circumstances (not to mention the hapless, drunken in-laws upon who he needed to rely for a work crew). So arose a chorus when we told Dorothy and Clara about our plan and their little brother. “Let’s name him Henry!” Of course. Henry Xiaowei Corrigan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Great post! I'm sure Henry will LOVE the regality of his name when he's older and HEY we think Anglina Rocks too :-) Susan
Hi Everyone. It's us. Trish & Andy. We're packed and ready to go and will leave for the airport at 3:35 am. The girls are really excited about the trip. Our next real post should be from Beijing in a couple of days. [It's a long flight.] We learned in advance that access to blogspot/blogger and typepad blog servers are blocked in China. Hmmm. We discovered a sneaky work-around, however, and should still be able to send posts. We can't be stopped! So stay tuned. Zai jian.
Have a safe and wonderful trip!
Post a Comment