Important Derek MacEwen Notice

As the Derek MacEwen who had the name first, I see no need
to qualify my name in any way to distinguish myself from
either Derek B. MacEwen or Derek McEwen. I also see no need
to hide behind a non de plume. If people are making comments
to or about similarly-named people without taking the time to find
out if they are the one who made the remarks, that’s their
problem, not mine!

As I have said in previous comments, the idea of a portal
for the greater Charlottetown area is a
good one, and Virtual Charlottetown/TownSquare2.com/TownSquare.ca
does provide a portal framework which could meet everyone’s needs.
The concern I expressed is that there is no provision for the many
websites that currently exist to join in the fun. Unless you
get a “microsite” you’re not in the portal.

When I emailed my concerns to the Town Square website
administration, I didn’t get a reply, so I took this
opportunity to put in my two cents worth.

I certainly have no criticism about the whole idea of a portal,
and as Peter has eloquently outlined, there are many good
things about this project, some of which other people named
Derek MacEwen may or may not be working on. Although I have
worked on many projects in my 22 years in IT, I have no
involvement with this project, and my opinions are not those
of other people with similar names.

- Derek MacEwen
(the original)

I am all for nicknames. Unlike you Peter - except when you are visiting a county in your particular slavic homeland or perhaps in an Ontario town - the issue of clansmen of limited imagination in naming has always been a problem for me, too, and one which is usually solved among the Scots with nicknames. In the Sydney Mines telephone directory, at least when I was a kid there in 1970, the John MacDonalds were distinguished by “Big” or “Red” or sometimes a Gaelic adjective. North Rustico now puts out its own telephone book with nicknames - I was “lawyer” McLeod…what will I be now? I, as you can imagine now that you have witnessed my bounteous self at the radio meeting, have been Big Alan McLeod which, for example, distinguished me at university from the brother of the current minister at Trinity United Al MacLeod the piper. I am also Route 258 Al McLeod to the Hunter River Post Office to set myself apart from that Allen MacLeod whose Bell Express Vu bills I was getting for a while. He’s Allen 225 MacLeod, I think. So why don’t you make a nickname a posting requirement?

I occasionally worry that comments by other “Stevens” will be attributed to me. I usually put my full name in with comments. There are rumblings of a universal identification system for weblog replies in the development community. I’m a bit skeptical of this, but it’s an interesting idea.

To both my good friends, Derek MacEwen and Derek MacEwen: Hello. And may warm sun shine always on your back, may the road rise up to meet you, and may you be half an hour in heaven before the devil knows you’re dead!

Alden Knowlan notwithstanding, there are few “Kevin O’Briens” roaming around. Imagine how tough it must be for those poor sops… perhaps they should change their names to Derek MacEwen… at least that way the acerbic comments of which they may be mis-credited will be ever so much more palatable.

And, just in case you’ve been wondering, there is no truth to the rumour that Alden Knowlan, at the time of his death, was working on a new novel under the working title of “Various Persons Named Peter Rukavina”.

I think it is great to be the embodyment of a clannish archtype. When I speak to Kejp (KOB for the uninitiated) I see generations of KOB’s standing behind him.. Then I get scared and run away.

…And conversely there is the singular Craig Willson. The second “l” a history unto itself - very English Civil War, very Mayflower. Allows pronunciation as Mr. Burns would say it. Do Willsons view Wilsons as all so Shelbyville?