Chairman Mayo

When I first started goofing around with blogs, I created an generic one called “Chairman Mayo”. After all of a week, I dropped the charade of anonymity - nothing I have to say is that controversial, and as a journalist I make a habit of standing behind what I write.

So, why Chairman Mayo?

No good reason. In one of those lame-o pun moments, it occurred to me that if I were to one day open a sandwich restaurant, I’d call it “Chairman Mayo.” Of course, I have no plans of doing so - a more reasonable aspiration might be to lobby to get the name in the background of a street scene on The Simpsons (somewhere between the Try-N-Save and I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm.)

[Update: My colleague Tara reminds me that the inspiration for this pun came from a charming mispronunciation in the CBC Archives clip, “Stalin, Mao and your mother’s fruitcake“, featuring 1950s homemaking guru Kate Aitken.]

An auxiliary reason for choosing such a name was to come up with something not repeated a bazillion times on the internet, so my imaginary audience might be able to find the damned thing. But that was an instant failure - a quick Google search shows almost 700 other Chairman Mayo entries. Amazingly, most of these are actual chairmen of actual organizations, men who actually have the first or last name of Mayo.

Just asking… if your name was Mayo, would you voluntarily seek out a Chairman position, or title? Spending the next few years with people addressing you as “Chairman Mayo,” and having the more worldly ones snigger each time they said it? If my name was Mayo, I wouldn’t be applying for those jobs, or I’d demand a title change as a condition of employment.

Other Chairmen Mayos:

• Chairman (Wayne) Mayo of the Texas Appraiser Licensing Board
• Chairman Mayo A. Shattuck III of Constellation Energy
• Chairman (Michael) Mayo Sr. of the Milwaukee County Economic and Community Development Committee

Then again, I’m only Chairman of a dumb little blog, and I picked the name voluntarily, so who ya gonna listen to?

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 07-12-2006 | 12:07 PM
Posted in: Blogging | Blather