Another Jerf!

Fascinating! There's another person out there with my ridiculous nickname.

I thought I was the only one, but clearly, he never thought so. This Jerf, real name Jeremy Bowers, actually has a section on his page "calling all Jerfs," though no one seems to have reached out to Mr. Bowers thus far. Until I did five minutes ago.

[Quick explanation: people have been calling me Jerf for about five years. This usually happens whenever Geoff and I are in the same room and somebody needs to differentiate between us (if someone needs to speak to both of us, they can just say one word, which saves people breath, confusing as it may be for Geoff and myself). The Jerf thing started in a Skits-O-Phrenics audition at Cornell, when I altered the first "F" on my nametag with a Sharpie, making JERF out of JEFF. The nickname has stuck ever since, which suits me fine, as I've got quite the fetish for nonsense syllables.

Occasionally, I am introduced to new people as Jerf and they think that I'm either crazy or really pretentious. Not that any self-respecting pretentious person (as opposed to all those self-loathing pretentious people?) would give themselves a name that sounds like a hairball. Also, I find it strange that not one of these people has ever actually believed that my name really is Jerf and that it's just a foreign name. Does it really sound like something that couldn't possibly have come from any foreign context? I don't think so, but I guess I've lost perspective.]