The KramerNamer contest ends today. As promised in my original post, I will mail a dollar bill to the individual who made the best suggestion for Kramer's first name.
There were over 25 entries that could be categorized as follows:
- Typographically Interesting Names: eg.
"Remark Kramer" suggested by yours truly, and then later by Mathias Thallmayer.
"Elba Kramer", which is remarKablE backwards was an excellent suggestion by John Salomone.
I was surprised that nobody tried adding or subtracting to the letters of Kramer. I tried it, and the best I came up with was "Nudphu" by adding 3 letters (this sounds like it could be Baboo's last name), and "Oveqiv" by adding 4 letters (perhaps the group's Yiddish scholars can help us here - could it be an inversion of gayavec, possibly meaning "come hither"?)
But while these syntactical games are favorites of mine, I'm afraid that they just don't have the stuff that *real* art is made of.
- Names That Were Interesting Mainly Due to Their Length:
There were a number of these. The longest suggestion was made by Roy Eassa: "Promentalshitbackwashpsychosisenemasquad Kramer"
While these were valuable contributions, it simply the case that length just isn't very important..... Or so I've been told.
- References To Details From the Show:
As you might expect, this was the most popular category.
"Isosceles" was suggested by a Seinfeld fan ironically named sprockets (the makings of another contest?), and then by several others.
"Deloris" suggested by S. A. Wilson, along with a number of similar posts with almost-female-reproduction-almost-female names.
My favorite from this category was "Yo-Yo Ma Kramer" sent in by [email]. I wish just like saying Yo-Yo Ma..
But the winning post doesn't fit neatly into any category. So here it is: I feel that the best suggestion was made by Nathan Coby Secco ([email]) when he posted "Kramer Vs. Kramer".
You might argue that this movie reference is just another example of self-cannabilism by our intellectually vacuous pop culture. But if you look at the suggestion more closely, I think you'll realize that the *inner conflict* expressed by the name "Kramer Vs. Kramer" represents Kramer at his best: Fumbling but graceful, demanding but giving, passive but passionate.
I will copy this post to ncs2@crux2.... Nathan, please email a postal address to where I can send the $1.00 prize (for me, a small price to pay for your insight). After you have your dollar, please post an article to this group stating that you have received the prize money.
Congratulations to everyone for the great suggestions.