Thursday, November 09, 2006

It's a Small, Small World

Today, I woke up to a nice surprise, an email from a girlfriend I haven't talked to in a decade!

She found me by googling my name. So much for the promises of the Witness Protection program! I knew those guys seemed a little slow. However, this fortuitous event does bring to mind something I have been saying for years. Women lose a large number of contacts when they change their name due to marriage. Men don't have to worry, their last name will always stay the same. Googling your second grade male friend is a piece of piss. Jimmy Jones, oh there he is, still living in his mother's basement.

But get married and change your name, suddenly your own sister can't find you in the phone book. This is why I have always advised friends to retain their maiden names as a middle name. This used to be a common practice in the early part of the last century, right up until about the mid-70's when the women's movement pushed for hyphenation. Being a teacher I have never thought it was a good idea to ask my students to call me Mrs. Schempp-Fournier, not unless they had been very, very bad. As you can image, I make Mark call me that a lot.

On all my business cards, this blog, stationary, etc. I use Heidi Schempp Fournier. So should an old friend wish to look me up, or google me for that matter, it should be relatively easy to contact me. Of course I don't recommend this route if you are, or have ever been stalked. In that case, you should change your name and leave the country. In that order.

Picture from Flickr

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Heidi

I couldn't resist googling you after I read this!!

Muff