This is a truly weird and sad little story of our time. I knew this poor fellow slightly in the late 1980’s when he worked at The New Republic and was still known as “Rich Blow.”
Rich went on, as I recall, to the now-defunct magazine Regardie’s, and then on to work for JFK Jr. at George. After John-John spiralled in, Rich wrote a high-profile tell-all that some said violated the spirit of a confidentiality agreement that the Bonnie Prince made his George staffers sign.
That’s when things got interesting, because after getting singed by the spotlight, Rich tried to reinvent himself by changing his name to “Richard Bradley.” Maybe he was embarassed by having his name associated with what some perceived as his betrayal and tasteless sell-out of a noble boy king (though maybe not, since as of last week, Rich is still dining out on his brush with greatness); maybe he was just getting back at his dad and mom for picking an embarassing name for him; or, maybe he just decided that 40 years were enough of putting up with people snickering about the fact that if his nickname were Dick instead of Rich, he’d be “Dick Blow.”
(Don’t ask me why Rich didn’t just stop using his first name; presumably, he had a perfectly good middle name he could have started using, and even though Pope Jerome of Bad Attitudes has a strange hang-up about people who “part their names on the left,” i.e., who go by their middle names, I bet that Richard Blow would have been entitled to a papal indulgence.)
Now comes news that Rich has his knickers in a twist because the kids who run a blog (one that is irrelevant and won’t be linked here because it is behind one of the highest pay barriers in Blogistan) like to identify him not just by his new name, but also as “ex-Dick Blow” and the like. Rich desperately pleads with them that “no one ever called me ‘Dick,’ at least not to my face.” Which, I can say because I was there, is true in its entirety. The lesson here, I suppose, is that if you change your name because some people used to call you “Dick Blow” behind your back, don’t be surprised if they stop calling you “Dick Blow” behind your back. And just plain start calling you, “Dick Blow.”
...perhaps he should have stuck with a more common name, perhaps naming himself after King George a la Orwell.
.... maybe the guy had a secret fascination with a guy named Tricky Dick.