Well, you need to know about Beta-Beta-Bongo, an anti-fraternity created by Sam and John. But they should be the ones to talk about that; suffice to say that nicknames were required for membership. So I was searching for a nickname.
Nine or ten years ago, Sam and I were at the UC Theater in Berkeley watching the blankety-blankth "International Tournee of Animation" and there were credits for some random German cartoon, and it listed something like:
Ilke Schoppenhausen
Dieter Diefruppelaugenstein
Zeigen
and I whispered to Sam, "Woah, wouldn't that be something to be named 'Zeigen'?" And afterwards, Sam started calling me Zeigen for my BBB name, and some people still call me that. And since everyone needs a nickname on the Internet, this one is mine.
It wasn't until a while later that a different John, John Galloway, told us, "You dolts, 'Zeigen' is German for 'To Present' or 'To Show'" (which makes sense given the credits above). Sam and I were embarrassed, but I stuck with the name anyway. Because "Zeigen" is one of those special-sounding words like "eigenvector" and "abstruse."
E. Stephen Mack
(estephen@emf.net)