{"id":2376,"date":"2007-12-15T16:54:40","date_gmt":"2007-12-15T23:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2376"},"modified":"2007-12-16T10:45:36","modified_gmt":"2007-12-16T17:45:36","slug":"styx-and-stones-and-bobby-jones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2376\/styx-and-stones-and-bobby-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Styx and Stones and Bobby Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The Updikes are here\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Like many Boomers\u00a0from my generation I enjoy the somewhat breezy\u00a0entertainment of\u00a0people watching\u2013especially while on vacation or\u00a0dining out in restaurants. (Actually, hotel lobbies are <em>sans pareil <\/em>for this pastime, I\u2019ve found.) The challenge however, is not to<em> <\/em>be<em> judgemental a<\/em>nd this, quite frankly,\u00a0is difficult for me.<\/p>\n<p>Several years ago I\u00a0contrived a\u00a0harmless little game I informally dubbed \u2018The Updikes,\u2019\u00a0to accompany this\u00a0casual diversion. It\u00a0embraces the human characteristics\u00a0of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.reference.com\/browse\/wiki\/Onomatopoeia\">onomatopoeia<\/a>\u2013the description of an individual by some physical or idiosyncratic trait\u00a0or sound, famous celebrity resemblances, or a combination of both. I like to play this with my wife whenever we are out together and grow tired of talking about ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMona, look\u2026.the <em>Updikes<\/em> are here.\u201d She glances over to the door\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>In walks a very erect couple with thinnish lips and proper attire. They appear quite Protestant as they chat it up with the maitre d\u2019. The husband may even resemble my favorite bang coiffed, gray haired author. The name\u00a0seems perfect. My wife lets out a hushed chortle\u2026\u201d<em>Up<\/em>-Dikes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should send the gentleman over a Pulitzer, vintage 1982,\u201d I add,\u00a0nudging the game into the obscure, \u201cIt pairs well with <em><a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rabbit_At_Rest\">Rabbit<\/a><\/em>.\u201d\u00a0My lovely partner doesn\u2019t get the reference. She doesn\u2019t know who John Updike is. She just thinks the name is funny. She scopes the room. It\u2019s her turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBritney Spears,\u201d she whispers, motioning with her eyes toward a plump, blond haired toddler rolling around on the floor with her sundress over her head. Now that\u2019s funny.<\/p>\n<p>Like I said, I\u00a0came up with\u00a0this game a long time ago and have, over the years,\u00a0excogitated it into a spin-off\u00a0diversion I refer to as,\u00a0\u2019Nickname.\u2019\u00a0 And while I obviously can\u2019t take any credit for <em>that<\/em> age-old practice, I do my best to elevate\u00a0this\u00a0exercise to an art form whenever possible.\u00a0Understand that\u00a0I\u2019ve always been big on alternate monikers. <a href=\"http:\/\/genopetroche.blogspot.com\/2007\/11\/big-lazy-beast.html\">My dog, Elvis<\/a> for example, has at least a couple dozen alone; <em>Stump,<\/em> <em>Mookie, Snout <\/em>and <em>Chops<\/em>, being but a few. This is also how I describe clients to my wife (most of whom she\u2019ll never meet) as it provides her with a reference or,\u00a0at the very least, a mental picture of the\u00a0odd personalities I have to deal with on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2376\/styx-and-stones-and-bobby-jones\/#more-2376\" class=\"more-link\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Updikes are here\u2026 Like many Boomers\u00a0from my generation I enjoy the somewhat breezy\u00a0entertainment of\u00a0people watching\u2013especially while on vacation or\u00a0dining out in restaurants. (Actually, hotel lobbies are sans pareil for this pastime, I\u2019ve found.) The challenge however, is not to be judgemental and this, quite frankly,\u00a0is difficult for me. Several years ago I\u00a0contrived a\u00a0harmless little [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2376","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-real-estate","8":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2376\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}