What’s In A Name? (General)

When you get right down to it, I’m writing a blog thanks to three people – Sean Kilkelly, Matt Hamilton, and Zach Braff. What? Wait, let me explain.

I think a lot of broadcasters, me included, often get the bug to write. I’ve had the privilege to be published just a few times, including my elementary school newspaper, but just as importantly in the pages of the Greenwich Citizen. So as blogging came into vogue, I thought about using one as a way to get my writing urge out of my system. Still I did nothing about it, until this year. Last winter Matt Hamilton, a former intern of mine at WGCH and an occasional colleague now (when he’s home from college), started his own blog. My only criticism of it is what my biggest fear is: that it doesn’t get updated enough. Matt’s writing is good – full of opinions and commentary regarding his sports world (especially the New York Knicks, Giants, and Yankees). I get on him when I see him, especially because I want him to succeed, and part of that success is to keep the blog going. Come on Matt!

Eventually, Sean sent me an email in the Spring that he had started a blog. I’ve probably bragged enough about his blog to the point of nausea, so I’ll let it go at that. That convinced me to create a blog. So I set up an account here at Blogger. But what to call it? That became my most pressing concern. I am big one for quoting movies, and I thought for sure that something from “Napoleon Dynamite”, Anchorman: the Legend of Ron Burgundy” or “Office Space” would inspire me. No dice, despite the efforts of my sister-in-law, who suggested “PC Load Letter” from “Office Space.” How about a song quote, or some stupid saying of mine? Again, nothing. I wracked my brain, and those of my aforementioned sister-in-law, my wife, and my niece. Ultimately, it was going to have to come from me.

As I discussed last time out, I love roads, especially our highways here in the US. And that’s when it hit me. Why not use a road reference? In high school, I would sketch signs (school was so boring to me), among other things. Among those signs was “Exit 59”, a reference to where we would depart Interstate 75 in Florida to get on Florida state route 52 and head west to my grandparents’ house in Holiday. I always viewed Exit 59 as the symbol for heading to paradise. However a few years back, Florida changed their exit numbers from sequential to mileage-based, which means, essentially, the number of miles from the southern end (in this case) of the highway in question. If it’s an east-west highway, it’s the number of miles to the eastern end. So Exit 59 has been changed to Exit 285. It’s just not the same.

So you get the “exit” reference, but what about the number? When I was five, my age became my favorite number. Yep, there was no “Mensa” in my future. At that same age, baseball was becoming my obsession, and I wanted to be a baseball player. So what better number than five? Yes siree, when I made it to the major leagues, I would wear number five for the New York Yankees. And that’s when I was told of a problem. You see number five was retired in 1952 for the great Joe DiMaggio. My dream was dead. That’s why I never became a ballplayer. Plan B, therefore, was to make my number 55. I’ve worn it in softball leagues, and have made it a part of my life in other ways. And now, it is part of my blog. Thus after literally months of consideration, I decided on “Exit 55”, a choice that my wife agreed with.

Oh, so what about the Zach Braff reference? Sorry, I almost forgot. Right around the time I was preparing to put “Exit 55” online, I watched Braff’s excellent movie, “Garden State.” I’ve seen it a few times and enjoy more each time. Not long after, I was in Times Square (in New York City, of course) at the Virgin Music Store. Virgin is a very dangerous place for me, especially when it’s sale time, and guess what was going on when I got there? You got it – thousands of CD’s for ten bucks. Among my purchases was the “Garden State” soundtrack. It is a very good CD, and worth my ten dollars. So that led me to search the net for info on the music. During that search, I came across the site and blog for Zach Braff, star, writer and director of “Garden State” and of course, “Scrubs.” Turns out that he’s a blogger and a MySpace junkie. Add it all up and what do you get? How about Rob’s MySpace website and ALTERNATE blog?? So if you wish, go to http://www.myspace.com/steelyankee or http://blog.myspace.com/steelyankee if you want more of your “Rob fix.” And if you do, please seek counseling. Now.

This MySpace thing allows you to welcome “friends” to your site, and you to theirs. So guess who one of my friends is? That’s right…Zach Braff. Strange, I know. Can’t say we’ve exactly truly communicated, but I know Zach and I are homey’s.

I can’t say that with a straight face.