Names and snakes

Mama told me she had asked Nicolane if she could call her Nikki (Nicky? Nickie?) because it was easier. I'm not sure what is is with names in this family. Ted, of course, thought his name was too short and asked if he could be called Bill instead. Then we have the weird names: Muggie Minerva. Doylene. Tacky was really Malyer, both uncommon names. And then LaNelle, Cordell, Talmadge, Fayne (both Roxie and Linda). When I joined the Carmelites, they had the custom of replacing your family name with the name of a saint or some Christian mystery. So I became (in my fully Catholic name) Michael Damien of Christ Crucified. Cool, huh!

Damien is my confirmation name, but I won't waste more time explaining that. And it is for Blessed Damien of Molokai, a holy man who worked with lepers. It has nothing to do with the Omen movies.

Anyway, I was thinking about Nikki and it made me think of Nike -- pronounced like the shoe but actually referring to the Greek goddess of victory. Νίκη is represented as a winged woman in sculpture, perhaps the most famous being the now-headless Winged Victory of Samothrace pictured. Since Kristin/Nicolane and I always had an angel thing going, I think a winged victory -- i.e., Nike -- would be a good symbol. If she wants, I will pronounce it like Nikki, but I will spell it Nike. Any thoughts?

Lest you think a headless lady is not too nice an image, remember that Audrey Hepburn did a take on this image in Funny Face.

As for the snakes, well, the cats just brought in another little snake, this one about six inches long. It's going to be a long spring... Makes me almost long for the dead mice. Wisconsin has two venomous snakes, the timber rattler and the dangerous and endangered eastern massasauga rattler. Neither one is likely to be around here, but I would as soon not find out.

BTW, did you know it is not correct to say a snake is poisonous? Venom is poison, but technically an animal is venomous if it injects poisonous venom into your body. It is poisonous if you get the poison into your system by eating the animal. I never heard of any of those folks who eat fried rattlesnake meat getting poisoned, so I guess that means they are venomous and not poisonous.

TMI, right?