Actor Nicolas Cage and his wife Alice have named their new child Kal-el, which is Superman's birth name, which is of course their right.
But don't I remember a sketch that Nicholas Cage did when he hosted Saturday Night Live back in 1992? He played a man arguing with his pregnant wife (portrayed by Julia Sweeney) about what to name their kid. The premise was that she kept suggesting names like John and George and he kept rejecting each one, explaining how it would cause their son to be ridiculed and beaten up. The punchline was that it turned out he was so sensitive to the issue because his name was Asswipe.
I'm not sure what point I'm making here. It's just that every time I hear of someone saddling their child with an odd given name, I think of Nicolas Cage and that sketch. And now, here he is…
Oh, well. Guess I'll forget about that and just wait for today's Tom DeLay indictment. Then again, if I miss it, there's always tomorrow's.