Great Names in Our Time

After the New York Comic-Con ended, there was a flurry of news reports on the Internet about how it went, and all of them quoted the show's director...which reminded me of that old "truth is odder than fiction" thing.

See, that guy is named Lance Fensterman, which is a name you'd be hard-pressed to get away with in a story -- it sounds like the alter-ego of a Feiffer superhero parody of the early '60s. (Maybe of Super Copywriting Man! Who, from his cubbyhole at Young & Rubicam, wields a pen by day to sell the new line of Oldsmobiles, but, by night, he saves the city from the likes of Captain Commie and The Red Pencil.)

Maybe it's just because I have a name that's bland and common, but interesting names make me perk up every time. And Mr. Fensterman has one of the great quirky names of our time. So Antick Musings is declaring a salute to Lance Fensterman. If any of you know equally wonderful names -- the kind that sound like the come from a world more interesting than our own -- please add them in comments.

(Oh, and here's another one -- there used to be a TV reporter in New York named Kendra Farn, who I thought could have stepped right out of a Jack Vance novel.)