In my column today, I talk a little about names: in particular Che and Adolf (or, blessedly, with “ph”). I tell a little story about Adolph Green, the late lyricist. And I want to share with you a reader e-mail — hold on to your socks:
Jay,
I know a couple named Adolph and Eva — my sister was married to their son for a number of years. Adolph was from Austria [but of course], though he was not of Hitler’s generation; his wife was American. I never had the nerve to ask them if they got funny looks when they met people or if they hesitated to marry on the grounds that their children would have to write their parents’ names on forms and so forth.
Adolph ’n’ Eva? That pairing makes Bonnie ’n’ Clyde seem like Jack ’n’ Jill. But wait, Bonnie and Clyde are cool — didn’t Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway make them so? (Where’d Faye get that “e” on the end of her name?)