What’s in a Name?
Day 87 of Writing
There are a lot of ways that you can come up with character names. They can be randomly selected, or the names can have meaning, either to the story, historically, or personally. I like the names to mean something to me. That helps me remember them.
In a previous post, I wrote a little about who my main character Grace was named after (Admiral Grace Hopper). Her full name is Grace Cuthbert Hall. Her last name comes from the World War II spy Virginia Hall. I’ll do a full blog entry on Virginia, as she was perhaps the greatest spy of World War II (or at least the one the German’s hated the most). Cuthbert was the name of her artificial leg.
Here are where a few of the other names come from:
Barry Nelson, an end of the cold war era spy. He is named after the first actor ever to play James Bond in a movie.
Admiral Russell “Bud” Stansfield, the leader of the team hand selected by Grace. His name comes in part from Admiral Elmo Russell “Bud” Zumwalt, who did a lot to open up the Navy to women. I just could not imagine naming my character Elmo, so I left that part out. Stansfield comes from Admiral Stansfield Turner, who headed the CIA. I mostly picked him because he had a son named Geoffrey.
General William “Bill” Williams, Grace’s former lover. His name comes from my paternal grandfather, who was named William, and then was adopted by the Williams family.
Walter “Wall” Willis is an engineering genius and also a very big guy. The first name Walter was because I wanted to give him the nickname “Wall” because when he played college ball he was almost impossible to get past. Willis is really random, from the catch phrase “Watcha talkin’ about, Willis?” It is a reference to a very old TV show.
Finally, that brings me to Hector Fuentes, the computer expert. I chose the name Hector because every Hector I have ever know was a kind and stand-up person, as is my Hector. The name Fuentes was to honor a high school and college friend, Ed Fuentes. He passed away recently and way too young. I read about it in a major obituary in the L.A. Times where I was amazed at what he had accomplished. I have not seen him since college.
Ed Fuentes
I am not going to be able to do his life justice in this short piece. He was an artist, designer, photographer, muralist, writer, art advocate, and curator. He made a huge difference in his life and accomplished so much. I wish I could tell him how proud I am of him. He still burns brightly in my memory.
I met Ed (Eddie at the time) Fuentes through theater in high school. He was close friends with my brother. I did wind up acting with him in college productions. We were often at the same events. I mostly remember his sense of humor and his laugh. He loved to laugh. I vaguely remember his love for art at the time, a life long love that would become the major focus of his life.
I looked at a lot of the more recent pictures of him, and he is almost always very serious looking, so different from the way I remember, but much more befitting his stance as a serious and important artist. I love the photo of him at the top, which shows his less serious side. I lost track of him over the years (although my brother kept in touch). I wish I had gotten to know the man he became.
He did not graduate from Riverside City College where we both went, but after a brief time in New York, he became a part of the arts scene in Los Angeles. He worked as a graphic designer and art director for Variety and NBC. He also wrote for a series for KCET called Writing on the Wall. The Los Angeles Times referred to him as a “Human Cyclone.” He has been called a force of nature. His quick wit was always at the ready to soften the intensity of his personality.
He was more than a talented artist; he was a voice for art, an important arts advocate. His writing focused on Latinx and Chicano art, and he was a huge advocate for street art and the great cultural tradition of Mexican murals. I think of him every time I drive past the amazing murals in nearby Pacoima. His camera was always at the ready to document and share the street art he so loved.
He moved to Las Vegas late in his life to finish his education and get his MFA. He was very active in the Las Vegas arts scene, which is where he was based up until his death.
He did not live to see his first one man show at the Riverside Arts Museum, which was scheduled shortly before he died of a heart attack. His sense of humor was on display there with one of his most famous creations, a fictitious street artist named Bunko. Ed was just the “discoverer” of the art of Bunko, which he found in boxes at a garage sale, but, of course, he was actually the artist behind the works.
He left this life having accomplished a lot, but more than that, he left this life being loved by many. That is the most important part.
Much thanks to Laura Henkel for permission to use the two photos of Ed included here. Laura is a writer, art expert, and very engaged in the art scene in Las Vegas. She founded Sin City Art Gallery, where they have lectures, exhibitions, and avant-garde art festivals.
What’s Up with Us
Fortunately, both Belle and I can cook, which has really helped while being shut in. We do miss going out, so last night I prepared a fine steakhouse type of meal.
As you might guess from reading this blog, I am very into technology. We have a lot of tech in our house and that includes in the kitchen.
I made artichokes, which involved quite a bit of technology. I cooked them in the Sous Vide, which is a carefully temperature controlled water bath. I cut the artichokes in half, scooped out the choke, and filled the hole with butter, garlic and herbs from the garden. They then get sealed in a vacuum bag. It takes about two hours in the water bath, but the advantage is that you don’t have to watch them and the flavors get infused throughout. It has so much flavor you almost don’t need a dipping sauce. They got a final five minutes on the grill to add grill marks and a little extra flavor. The grill is also high-tech.
The grill we cooked on we got last year, and is one of my favorite purchases ever. I have been grilling and smoking for years, but this makes it all so much easier, almost trivially easy. It is a wood pellet smoker where the pellets are automatically fed in and it maintains the temperature of the grill more accurately than our indoor oven. It turns what is normally a complex time consuming job into turning on the grill, setting the temperature and smoke level, and then walking away. The pellets are also far more economical than charcoal briquettes, where there is so much more waste. This grill only feeds in as many pellets as needed to maintain the set temperature.
I also have a 6 port remote thermometer where I can monitor six different temperature probes from my phone anywhere in the house. Temperature monitoring is critical to good barbecuing, and I also rely on my instant read thermometer for quick spot checks and an infrared thermometer for checking surface temperatures.
We don’t have Prime Rib often, and when we do, it is usually at our favorite place in Las Vegas. That won’t be happening anytime soon, so I smoked an herb-crusted Prime Rib at home. It was amazing. I have never attempted this before, but the grill made it easy.
It is a big grill, so while I was at it I threw a couple of racks of ribs on. I think I can safely say that I have mastered the art of smoking ribs. I smoke them for five and a half hours and then pull them. I don’t have to do anything other than spritz them with apple cider every half hour or so. They can then go in the fridge or freezer. Later they get coated with my favorite barbecue sauce and go out on the grill at 400 degrees for just half an hour to reheat, finish cooking, and caramelize the sauce.
Yes, it is all about the rub, but I learned a trick to get the rub to better adhere and add more flavor. I seldom use plain yellow mustard (I prefer the brown, whole seed and dijon mustards generally), but here slathering the ribs with regular yellow mustard does the trick. You’d never know it from tasting them, though.
We used to have our favorite barbecue places (including the very delicious Lucille’s), but we just don’t go out for barbecue anymore. What we can make here is better than what we can get going out, and the grill makes it so easy.
While there are a lot of not so useful kitchen gadgets, typically pitched on late night infomercials, there are many others that are indispensable. I did not use our mandolin to cut the thin slices of potato for my version of the French classic Potatoes Dauphinoise. Instead, I used another French classic, the food processor. It also shredded the cheese, including for the three cheese garlic bread.
It took a lot of tech to make this meal. If we had no electricity and I had to do this all by hand, I wouldn’t be doing it.