Have you noticed that hardly any Richard shortens his name to Dick anymore? My husband's name is Richard, and when I occasionally shorten it, it's usually Rick, Ricky, Ricardo (I'm aware that's not actually shortening it). There are only special times that I shorten it to Dick, and frankly, nobody in our house is particularly happy during those times.

I was going to post about the various Richards I found on Red Room (there's Richard Smoley, Richard Dean Smith, Richard A. Moran, Richard Rhodes, Richard Heaton, Richard Milner, Richard Minich, Richard Cotton, Richard Rose, Richard Villar, and Richard Knapp), but jeez, there are a lot of them, and I'm supposed to write at least 2,000 words today (and those words are not supposed to be about the venerable Eleven Richards of Red Room).

But then it leapt out at me! Dick! We do have one brave Dick in Red Room. It's Dick Lochte. Dick looks like an interesting guy. He doesn't really look like a Dick, though, he looks more like, oh, a Mike, or a Tom, something rugged and manly...though I suppose Dick fits those terms also.

Dick is well represented by a fine agent, and he's got great creds, and I have to wonder about that name. Dick is fairly old fashioned, isn't it? Who were the great Dicks in history? There's Dick Van Dyke, who sort of wound up with a double-whammy and was clearly way ahead of his time, Dick Van Patten, (Andy Dick doesn't count, neither, sadly, does Philip K. Dick), Dick Butkus, Dick Cheney. Seems to me that our Dick Lochte is a lot younger than these examples.

Obviously Dick has faded as a daily name for men. Sad, really. I vote we bring back Dick. It's a fine name, strong, proud, easy to say, easy to spell.

Kudos to Red Room's own Dick Lochte, for hanging onto a perfectly fine name, for carrying the Dick tradition forward, and for not bending to those who are too afraid to use Dick. So go check Dick out, because despite the fact that I wrote this post with tongue nearly painfully lodged in cheek, he really does look like a great writer.

I'm going to buy at least one of his books, as a salute to the sad demise of daily Dick, and as penance for using him so shamefully (look people, there's a contest going on, and I'm never going to get to CA if I don't put up something sort of controversial!).

Thanks, Dick.

Addendum: It has been brought to my attention (with grave concern) that some people might actually come to my blog who are NOT regular Red Room readers, and that perhaps I should put this post in a little context, therefore I shall direct you to two recent posts, which were the subject of much excellent discussion in the community, both on the boards/blogs, and off: Two ***** In Paris and Two Beavers On the Left Bank

The discussions the original post created were about censorship, appropriateness, word usage, etc., all worthy discussions, no? Of course, now you will click over to THEIR posts, which will only add to THEIR page ranks, thus giving them the edge. *sigh* All of my best ideas backfire...