Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
Joshua Glenn is a Boston-based writer, editor, and multimedia
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Christopher Shea writes the Critical Faculties column for Ideas.
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« Scheherazade schtick | Main | Archigram gets some love » Tuesday, June 19, 2007Hodgman on DutyJohn Hodgman, a Brookline-born author and humorist whom I once interviewed for Ideas ("Encyclopedia Clown," still proud of that title), was on jury duty in New York yesterday. And blogging all the while.  Among other things he blogged about to pass the time, Hodgman quoted an email that he'd recently received from a Montana man: My coworkers and I at the Bozeman dairy queen have developed a hopeless addiction to your audio book it started 3 months ago when we first used it to quench the griping boredom of working at a summer Ice cream place in the cold parts of winter.... We are most taken with the 700 hobo names in all we have listed to it at lest 20 times strait throw, Many times back to back. Well all this long explanation has lead up to the question. Can you create 3 hobo names for me and my 2 coworkers? If yes please tell us the information you will need to craft these names. The Dairy Queen employee is right: "Seven Hundred Hobo Names" is the funniest part of Hodgman's 2005 book "The Areas of My Expertise." Alas, Hodgman replies: "I REGRET I DO NOT CREATE HOBO NICKNAMES ON COMMISSION." The hobo nickname that Hodgman created for me (#413), "Taxachusetts Glenn," wasn't a commission; more like an insult. Or so I thought until I confronted him about it, while interviewing him for Ideas: GLENN: Why do you make fun of me in item #413 of "Seven Hundred Hobo Names"? Have our paths crossed before? What did I do to deserve this? HODGMAN: You are now, officially, the 700th person to ask that. While I initially had the idea of larding the list with shoutouts to friends and enemies and some celebrities, and indeed a couple of these remain, I very quickly determined that I should focus on pure invention as much as possible. Taxachusetts was a given. Glenn was just a last name chosen at random, but I am glad that it is yours, now that I know you, Taxy. This exchange never appeared in print. At last, the world knows the truth. Posted by Joshua Glenn at 07:38 AM
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