My friends Neena and Anil are in town for a few days. Yesterday while Anil was away on some errands, I had taken Neena for high tea at a local restaurant. On our way out, my daughter in law Leena was coming in and I was delighted. It is always a pleasure to meet up with her and yesterday was no exception. Since Neena had never met her I asked Neena if she could guess who this daughter of mine is. Neena, who has heard of my son Ranjan’s current girl friend Manjiree promptly suggested that name much to Leena’s embarrassment. Neena was most apologetic and when on Anil returned and we shared this with him, he remarked that his family is famous for dropping bricks.
Neena, knowing my weakness for home baked cakes, had baked one and brought it with her all the way from Delhi and I informed Ranjan to have it for dinner when he came home. He did not know that Neena had brought it and asked me this morning as to who had brought it, misheard me and promptly rang up Leena, his ex to thank her for the cake and she was zapped! The zapping was more poignant for having met Neena just yesterday and having experienced the faux pas.
I promptly told Neena that our family is also rapidly catching up with hers for dropping bricks.
I think that the problem is that we have too many similar sounding names among the people we know. Leena, Meena, Neena etc, Mitali, Meeta, Neetu etc are just some that can cause such brick dropping moments!
Because I don’t want to drop a brick too I won’t say what first came to my mind reading your story.
However, and it was embarrassing though everyone pretended not to have noticed, when – I think it was on the occasion of Thanksgiving some years ago – one of the guests toasted me and my ex-husband instead of Father-of-son and his second wife as hosts. Force of habit I suppose. Neither helped by the fact that her and my name are pretty similar. I am not surprised any longer by that truly awful habit where no one has a name any longer and everyone calls you “Darling” – just to be on the safe side.
U
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Rummuser Reply:
January 31st, 2013 at 20:17
You don’t have to worry about my sensibilities Ursula. I can actually imagine what it would have been.
There you are with a story that simply reinforces my belief that people are the same everywhere!
That takes the cake but better a brick than a clanger ! A brick drops with just one sickening thud whereas a clanger reverberates for eons ! I talk in my sleep so I stick to the straight and narrow out of compulsion not choice !
Rummuser Reply:
January 31st, 2013 at 20:18
Neena is laughing her guts out about the cake!
I think this happens in all families at some time or another. It is why I refer to so many people as Sunshine.
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Rummuser Reply:
January 31st, 2013 at 20:18
Aha, another secret out!
Is Leena, meena than Neena, and does Mitali meeta at Neetu’s ?
Rummuser Reply:
January 31st, 2013 at 21:11
All the good ladies have now decided to meet you in person so that you can find the answers yourself.
We call that “dropping a clanger or dropping someone in it” – never heard of “dropping bricks”. It’s interesting how local or other slang is so common we forget what we are saying until another asks “what?” and then sometimes it is more difficult to explain meaning.
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Rummuser Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 10:30
Yes, and to add further complications, the American and English spellings can cause all sorts of problems too.
I must admit Rummuser that I’ve never heard of the expression ‘dropping bricks’ so I’ve learned something new today. I know we have an expression that conveys the same meaning but it escapes me for now. Must be old age creeping up on me huh?
Still I reckon we’ve all dropped a brick or tow in our time so we shouldn’t feel too bad about it. I was actually going to comment of the similarity of the names, it must get totally confusing when they come up in conversations.
BTW, I just tried to post this comment and it says I am posting comments too quickly? Weird, being a slow typist it’s taken me awhile to post it lol. Oh well, let’s try it again shall we?
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Rummuser Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 10:34
Wow, Sire, thanks for dropping by and commenting. I am flattered. Not to worry, old age is a long way off for you. Such memory blocks.
I can assure you that I had nothing to do with the quirky you are doing something too quickly advise! Must be WP up to some experimenting.
Sire from Valentine Gifts Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 15:42
Personally I reckon it’s the Gremlins
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Rummuser Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 16:47
i think it rather romantic and sweet that ranjan hurried to phone leena to thank her for the delicious cake!
and the fact that neena found it all so funny speaks highly of that lady too!
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Rummuser Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 10:37
Leena and both are bricks! In the lnk http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brick item no.2.
That is why my parents named me “The Old Fossil” at birth. It is never confused with anyone else’s name. They told me that with any luck, it would eventually fit, somewhat like a well-worn shoe.
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Rummuser Reply:
February 1st, 2013 at 10:38
TOF, what prescience! A balding old shoe!
You’re right, Rummy. Lots of similar sounding names can cause a problem. We have the same here in the States. My granddaughter has a friend named Ginny. My friend is named Jeni. People say the names the same and get the girls mixed up.
Love the term “brick dropping.”
Blessings ~ Maxi
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Rummuser Reply:
February 4th, 2013 at 17:44
I recently had the pleasure of hearing fox pause from a lady friend. I was foxed to say the least and asked what it meant and she spelt it out for me as faux pas and when I pointed out the correct pronounciation, was informed that I was snooty and that she was not French and so could pronounce it anyway she liked!
Don’t know about the dropping of bricks…but my facility for calling everyone by every name including a long gone dog, is famous in our family. There’s one good thing about it, no one is offended because it is across the board. There is a special something about my daughter and my youngest sister, I switch their names constantly.
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Rummuser Reply:
February 4th, 2013 at 17:59
This was a specialty of my mother too! She would start off with mine and end up at last with whoever it was that she wanted to call!