I’m considering two curiosities today:

Oddity The First:

I have a brother named [Chris->]. He stands 6’4″, is quick-witted, has the McMains family good looks(!), and generally makes a significant and favorable impression on people. So it’s only natural that when people forget my name, they might come up with his once in a while.

The peculiar thing, however, is that people who have never met him — indeed, many who don’t even know that I have a brother — will also call me “Chris”. I get called by his name about 75% of the time when people call me something other than my actual name (discounting epithets). I would suggest that we perhaps got our proper names switched when we were younger, and the correct names left their mark, but nobody that I know of seems inclined to call him by name. Strange indeed.

Oddity The Second:

I bumped into [Tim the Glassblower->] this morning. He asked me if I’d lost weight, claiming that I must have dropped at least 15 pounds since we met. Other people, including my own dear [Abigail->], ask similar things with a good deal of regularity. But I’ve hovered within a 5 pound range for three years now, a far longer period of time than I’ve known Tim. My friend [David Barnard->] has also reported a similar phenomena: everyone seems to think we’re fatter than we are, and are then surprised by our actual physical presence. Baffling. Perhaps I should join Weight Watchers and rake in the rewards for my continual, though nonexistent, weight loss.