I then suggested that there were a couple of other possibilities: first, Shane Walsh-Smith may actually be a woman (think Shane Gould), or second, Shane Walsh-Smith may be Shane Smith's cross-dressing alter-ego. This was too much - the mystery had to be solved! I typed 'Shane Walsh-Smith' into Google and got a link through to his Facebook page (I won't be so mean to our Shane to post a link to that page in this forum). This revealed that Shane Walsh-Smith was indeed a dashing young man from Canberra, who is married to Katie Walsh-Smith (nee Walsh), and has a baby girl named Annie (perhaps the real reason Shane decided to hyphenate his name).
He even has a blog at which you can find out about more things Shane-related (this I will post a link to):
Select From Shane
If you visit his blog, you will discover that Shane Walsh-Smith is a writer of graphic novels, both of which you can read for free on his website. It turns out his wife Katie also has a blog, which is more rudimentary than Shane's but appears to be updated more regularly. Katie claims that she is happily married to Shane - whether that is because he does do all the cooking and laundry and paints her toenails is yet to be revealed. (Note: We are only kidding, Ms Walsh-Smith! ... Although maybe we are only saying that because we are afraid of you.)
So, mystery solved! Well, it wasn't really all that much of a mystery, but it's interesting to know that you can find out pretty much anything about anyone nowadays...
Riiiiiiiight. So... her changing her name is fine, but him changing his can only be inappropriate and emasculating? The idea of him changing his name is SO weird, you felt the need to cyber-stalk him?
ReplyDeleteI knew you'd say that! Alrighty then, let's clear up a few points:
ReplyDelete1) It's unusual, not weird.
2) All jokes aside, anyone changing their name is completely fine. It was just a subject of curiosity.
3) Clicking on someone's blog is hardly cyber-stalking. If that's the case, I wish more people would cyber-stalk me.
Hi Troy
ReplyDeleteI've never been the subject of a blog post like this before, and I'm trying to figure out how to respond. Maybe I'll just stick with the facts, and present them in excruciating detail.
The last name "Smith" is not especially interesting, to me or (I suspect) anyone else. I've never felt a particular connection to it, or even, really to members of my family with the name Smith.
My wife was vaguely mortified at the prospect of becoming a Smith, largely because she would have traded in her own last name of Walsh (less common, though admittedly not uncommon) for a name that takes 20 minutes to find in the phone book. Also, she didn't want Walsh to disappear entirely, as she is the last of her lineage (I have a brother, so Smith will live on).
We decided that we wanted to have the same last name as each other when we got married. We tried combining the names together, though the best we could get was Smalsh (which sounds like a verb that pretty much describes the process of combining names in this manner).
So, Walsh-Smith was born. We agonised over this a bit, because it's unclear exactly what Annie is going to do when she gets married. We decided to leave it to her discretion, and not get offended, whatever she one day decides.
I appreciate the suggestion that hyphenating my name makes me such a good husband that I would cook and clean and groom and win bread also. I cook sometimes, but am a very lazy laundress, and I have never painted a nail, be it finger, toe, or hardware.
Just in case you felt the mystery needed more solving.
(Also, I appreciate your refraining from posting a link to my Facebook page, but if you can access it directly from Google, it's really kind of a phyrric victory.)
PS: Thanks for boosting my traffic. My blog never gets hits, so I noticed a spike in the number of visits the other day.
Hi Shane,
ReplyDeleteWow, this is the first time that the subject of one of my blog posts has replied. This has made my day (admittedly, my day has been spent doing assignents, so not that exciting, but still!)
I never really thought that way about the disadvantages of having a name like Smith before, although now that I think about it, I do know of others with common surnames that have a similar indifference or even disdain. Given your reasons, Walsh-Smith does indeed sound like the best solution, certainly better than Smalsh (which would have comedic value, but would probably be cruel on poor Annie) or With.
In case you are curious, when I got married my wife took my name, but I left it entirely up to her - it didn't seem fair to me to push one way or the other, since I had no inclination to change mine.
And thanks for being a good sport about the post. Although if it has helped to raise the traffic on your blog, then I guess we both win!