Friday, July 07, 2006
When I met Lisa in the canteen today, I was like, "Hi Lisa", to which she replied, "Hi er... Marilyn!"
?!?!?!
Blur queen. It's been more than a year, and she still can't remember my name. And she's always calling me Marilyn. Later on, before I went back to class, I asked Lisa, "Do you remember me?"
She said, "Yeah, and I'll always call you Marilyn. It suits you."
"It's Michelle
lah."
"No, it doesn't suit you. Marilyn suits you better."
So funny! It's the first time I heard that my name doesn't suit me. So now I have a second name, Marilyn. I quite like the name. It's elegant, and Marilyn Monroe is one of my idols. Here's a little-known trivia: Marilyn Monroe was really born a brunette by the name of Norma Jean Baker. Ironic, isn't it? The world's most famous blonde wasn't a blonde at all. See what a bottle of bleach and a name that alliterates can do to boost your Hollywood career.
Which leads me to think:
Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?Let's look at famous people here. Surely being known to the world as Norma Jean isn't going to diminish her beauty one bit, but would Marilyn Monroe be less famous? While looking up Miss Monroe, I found a lot more stars who went by more glamorous stage names. The name "Brad Pitt" actually has a hunky connotation to itself now, but would he have been just as hunky if he was first introduced as William Pitt? (Actually he didn't change his name that much. His full name is William Bradley Pitt. But my point still stands.)
What about real names? Do real names make an impact on our lives? Will Suri Cruise and Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt grow up feeling sorry for the other girl's name? (To be fair though, they've both inherited fabulous genes. Twenty years from now they'd probably be hot babes. Okay, enough digression.) Will Apple Martin be depressed from being teased in class? (Maybe she won't even go to school. Her rich parents may get her a private tutor or something.)
Actually I wasn't too shocked with the Apple, because I've heard it before. And before local actress Apple Hong became known too. Years ago, I was watching this Taiwanese star search competition, and all the girls had erm... modern names. "
Pink", "
Purple", "Apple", "Peach"... There wasn't any girl named
Orange though. Wouldn't that be a fantastic concept? You can be a colour
and a fruit! Wow!
Which leads me to this conclusion: A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but nobody may want to smell it.
Think about it: You are the boss of some company. You need to shortlist 10 applicants for an interview, and you have twenty resumes in front of you. After going through 18 resumes, you have shortlisted 9 candidates. The last two resumes are from two girls. One is Jacqueline Tan, the other is Purple Tan. (Both names are purely fictitious. Any name belonging to an actual person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.) Assuming that both resumes are of the same degree of impressiveness, whom would you pick? And also assume that you are not kicking out the previous nine. And there are no photos attached.
Would you pick Purple over Jacqueline?
♥ The lights faded at
2:41 pm
