What's in a name?

 

 

As our baseball team's opening game at home is tonight, I thought I'd entertain you with some baseball trivia. I'll pose a question and see if you can come up with the correct answer.

 

 

Why Did Boof Bonser, a pitcher with the New York Mets organization, have his name legally changed from John to Boof?

I figured there HAD to be some significant reason for a man christened “John Bonser” to have his name legally changed to “Boof Bonser”.

Right?

So I did some research to satisfy my curiosity.

I invite you to choose the correct response from the possibilities listed, then see how well you did.

The actual answer is supplied below.

# 1 - He was honoring the memory of a feminist author slated for beheading by an Islamic government.

# 2 - He’s a white water rafter.

# 3 - It was the right thing to do.

# 4 - He named himself after a comic book produced in the United Kingdom.

# 5 - He is fond of Iranian fast food.

# 6 - He’s a great big idiot.

Look below for the correct answer…

There actually is an Iranian fast food restaurant named Boof... There’s one just in Tehran if you'd care to run out for lunch. But while Bonser may indeed be fond of Iranian fast food, this choice is wrong.

Fans of white water rafting like to boof. Boofing is similar to performing an eddy turn. If you’re interested in learning more about this, go to www.chrisj.winisp.net/articles/boofing.htm. But actually, this is NOT the reason John switched to Boof.

He named himself after a comic book produced in the United Kingdom. Although you may think this answer is comical, it, too, is incorrect.

He’s a great big idiot. This possibility comes from Australian slang (although I had to spell his name “Bonzer” rather than “Bonser” to make this one work). This choice, however, is wrong. (Well, actually, he MAY be a great big idiot, but this is not his avowed reason for changing his name.)

Honoring a feminist author. In truth there IS a feminist author named Kola Boof (although her given name was actually Naima Bint Karith) who sentenced to death by beheading by the Islamic government of Sudan. (She apparently didn’t return to Sudan to see if they’re really serious about this.) At any rate, this choice is wrong.

It was the right thing to do.  No, this can’t be right, right? 

Wrong. 

Actually, when interviewed, Boof said that this is indeed the correct answer. According to Boof, he received his nickname from his mom, and later, “I figured why not? Everybody knew me as Boof, anyway. So I figured it was the right thing to do.”

So now you know.