What's in a name?

Over the past few weeks my sister has introduced me to an old TV series and an even older one, and several actors, namely Battlestar Galactica, Horatio Hornblower, and the actors Ioan Gruffudd, Jamie Bamber, and Paul McGann. Paul McGann is 49 years old, and knowing that, I cannot quite convince my brain to let me check him out, though I must admit he is pretty enough if I were older. Ioan and Jamie, on the other hand, are both withing 5 years or so of my age, and very pretty, though both married. Jamie has 3 daughters, and Ioan is expecting his first child sometime this year. No, btw, I am not obsessed, merely catching up. These guys have all been around long enough that their true fans know plenty more than any Wikipedia site could convey, and had I been at home with my sisters a bit longer in Pueblo I would surely have seen all the Horatio Hornblower series on A&E as it aired, not on DVD years later. Battlestar Galactica is another matter, however. I loved the original series, and I still am resistant to the new Starbuck character. The old Starbuck and Apollo were great, and I had no real desire to see the new series from the bits and pieces I picked up hanging around my sisters. Even now, I am not so into it as I might be if I could forget the tenuous connection between this series and the old one. I am watching this series finally, now, because of Mr. Bamber, easily the most attractive man I have seen on a television lately. Ioan Gruffudd is alright, and grows into his character nicely in the later Hornblower episodes, but after Bamber's character [Archie Kennedy] died I was not nearly as enthusiastic about the rest of the series. Ok, so the difference is not particularly significant, since this was such a great show, but it is still there. Jamie Bamber is great as Archie, and great as Lee Adama, too, though when I see him in Battlestar Galactica he is still the guy who played Archie in my mind so far. I can't call him "Jamie" very easily, though. And I happened across a Jamie Bamber fan site tonight that was making me rather uncomfortable, because it tends to refer to him simply as "Jamie." I have always disliked my name for myself, and while I have given up for the present trying to adopt a different one, I tried several times in the past to get people to call me something else, usually James, for lack of a better idea. I loved foreign language classes pre-college, as they always made you take a different name for the class. [I have gone by Anne-Marie, Silvia, Katja, Tunsnelda/Tunsi, and Marcel, all quite happily.] Still, I respond to "Jamie" and seeing 'my' name plastered all over a site like that, I am quite sure that I would never want to be so famous as to be the object of such obessive devotion. The man is gorgeous, but he is still a complete stranger. I won't protest if he wants to be photographed naked for PETA, but I doubt you will ever catch me trying to get an autograph from any of these men.

But, thanks to Ioan, I am starting to learn a bit of Welsh. I love his natural accent, and there is no chance I will be able to adopt a Welsh accent without a much better understanding of the Welsh language itself.