Wouldn't You Like To Be An Iggy Too?

Runner-runner results:

Unfortunately, nobody correctly picked both runner-runner hands to win my mp3 contest. Many people correctly guessed the second hand as 2,5 for the wheel. But only one person guessed the first 10,10 correctly. I will have to get another contest going, but this time just do 1 hand so that the chances will be better that someone will win.

Ok, in honor of the one year anniversary of the blogfather's site, I am going to relate a story about how yours truly used to actually have the nickname Iggy.

It was the summer of 1989 and I had just secured a summer job as an Engineering co-op for General Electric Aircraft Engines in Massachusetts. There was no official dresscode, but the majority of the salaried personnel wore nice shirts and ties to work. As a college student, I had nothing resembling such attire to wear.

Luckily for me, one of my uncles had a bunch of custom tailored shirts that no longer fit him, but did indeed fit me. However, the shirts were monogramed in the upper left with his initials: J.I. Unfortunately, those aren't my initials, but for a summer job, I really didn't care. I was just glad I didn't have to spend a bunch of money on clothes for a job for which I'd be making $8/hour.

The first couple of weeks, I snuck under the radar, and nobody figured out that the initials on my shirt weren't really my initials. That didn't last. Eventually one of the more perceptive and funny co-workers looked at my shirt and said, "Hey, wait a minute! J.I.??? Those aren't your initials. What the hell does J.I. stand for?" Well, before I could explain the story, a light bulb went on in his mind.

"I know, you're James Ignatowski!" "Who?" "James Ignatowski, from Taxi. That's you!"

So for the next few days I was indeed James Ignatowski. One of the unwritten rules about nicknames is that they have to be easier to say than your real name. The 5 syllable nickname wasn't going to cut it. So after a while, James Ignatowski got shorted to simply Iggy. Even the name Iggy became too much work for some people and it was shortened even more to simply Ig.

To this day, there are still a handful of people who will greet me with either Iggy or Ig. Not many, but some. For the record, there is only 1 poker blogging Iggy, and that ain't me. Congrats again to the real Iggy on the one year anniversary of Guinness and Poker.