anyone who changes their name to anything-dot-com is a bona fide weirdo. Alex, I was wondering if anybody else agreed with me on that!

Yes, it does sound a little strange to shorten a one-syllable name to two, but in earlier times, at least in some places, people were known as having "long names" and "short names", so in that sense it fits. Now that I'm thinking about it, I've not heard those terms in a number of years. Now, what I hear is "full name" and "nickname".

Mm--I agree, on the baby-fying of names, esp. guys' names; for some reason, they seem to be given a harder time by their peers if they don't manage to get rid of it early enough. Although I know 3 guys whom I try to make sure I always call Ron; one is a few years younger than I, and the other 2 are older; and all 3 are called Ronnie at least by their wives, and they don't seem to mind. Benny? Wasn't he one of the bad guys in Sister Act?

Oh--am I really Jacqueline? Not quite; check my e-mail header, wow.