Re: CHAT: "John Doe" equivalents sought

Am 05/21 02:26  taliesin the storyteller yscrifef:
> * John Cowan <cowan@...> [000521 01:47]:
> > I've been asked on another mailing list to collect "dummy names" from
> > other cultures. In Anglo-America, the names "John Doe" and "Richard Roe"
> > (and female equivalents with "Jane") are used in the legal system and
> > elsewhere for people whose names are not known.  I have heard that
> > the name "Alain LaFlamme" is used similarly either in France or in
> > French Canada (my informant wasn't certain).  Are there other such names
> > elsewhere?  Details eagerly solicited.
>
Joe Bloggs?  John Smith? (Which I find odd, because it is my father's
name - not a name I would pass onto any hypothetical descendents).

> And while I'm rambling about connotations about names here, what is (if
> any) your equivalents of something or somebody "harry"? (How I pity the
> original Harry!) A harry person: fat hair, wearing jeans or leather or a
> mix, furry dice and wunderbaum in the tweaked car (uses it to attract chicks),
> the car-stereo, which probably cost more than the car, is churning out either
> something to woo (also harry) girls with, or some old Country (oh sorry it's
> named "roots" here now) or other unspeakably bad music, with a volume high
> enough to pierce your ear-drums. Bad booze (read: moonshine), worse tobacco,
> low income, low status (most places), no future. A harry thing is anything a
> harry person does or has or would (presumably) enjoy.
>
That's what I would call a Bogan.  You missed out the skinhead, or
mullet, haircuts, or the shoulderlength hair (at least!), depending on the
subspecies.  And the big dog!  One regional name that is emerging is
Westie, someone who comes from the poorer areas of West Auckland in the
North Island who has all the features of a Bogan or a harry (new name
for me).  One NZ comedian who cashes in on being a Westie and
popularising it is doing a national tour called "Full Leather Jacket".

I read out taliesin's description to one of my flatmates, and he agrees,
BOGAN!  /'bou g@n/

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@earthlight.co.nz