[Julie Steiner]

After being creeped out at Thanksgiving dinner by the news that members of my extended family occasionally Google my maiden name and peruse my poems and essays and posted blather, I have decided to change my pen name just enough to keep various aspects of my life a bit more compartmentalized.

[Jeanne G]

Hah, Julie,

I'm so glad you mentioned this, because I've been doing a double take all day thinking I just had the longest dyslexic moment ever. I really do have directional dyslexia and I often read things wrong, initially, esp. if I'm tired. But I was so sure your last name was Stoner and was just willing to blame my own faulty wiring, yet again. But 2 yrs is a pretty long "moment". Whew, relief.

Jeanne

[Roger Slater]

That's exactly why I use a nom d'Sphere myself.

[W.F. Lantry]

Just did a web search for Julie Steiner. Which one are you?

[Lightning Bug]

Excellent idea, Julie, I think I'll do the same.

Sincerely,

Lighteining Bug

edited to add:

It just occurred to me, Julie, that future googles will come to this post, since you include both your previous names. THEN, not only your jig, but mine will be up. Therefore, I'm going to hide somewhere I can never be found...in plain sight. Sincerely, I am,

Julie St*ner (future posts will have "o" in place of asterisk)

[ross hamilton hill]

I always thought Stoner was your bikie name and you were master-at-arms of the Bandidos, posting poems as a clever cover story.

[Rick Mullin]

I'm dyslexic enough to have spent most of today saying to myself, "Wait, it's Steiner? I've been reading it Stoner. I'm in much worse shape than I thought!"

This after getting over the fearful prospect of their being another new member....

Thanks for clearing this up for me.

RM

[Allen Tice]

Dear cousin Julie, you could go even farther with "Julie Lithographer", or get really hard to decipher with "Julie 石女", which can be read as "Julie RockLady".

[Claudia Gary]

Julie,

For whatever it's worth, this sort of thing happened to me once (I'm assuming you mean extended family members who are on the young side): a snarky and ad-hominem "review" was posted to a YouTube video of one of my songs. I tried countering it with a serious question requiring musical knowledge to answer, and the attacker never darkened my YouTube channel again (as far as I know). You might try that re: poetical knowledge.

Good luck!

Claudia

[Julie Steiner]

Jeanne and Rick: Happy to reassure you that you weren't seeing things (or weren't not seeing things). As you probably know, dyslexia has some big advantages in visual perception, along with the disadvantages. Hence the dyslexic motto: "When life gives you melons..."

Roger: Roger that.

Bill: This one, of course.

Bugsy: I've put the [noindex] tags on this thread, so I think we're safe. Your St*ner reminds me of a wonderful poem I encountered as a child, in The Reader's Digest (author unknown):

Pretty Mary donned her skates,
Upon the ice to frisk.
Wasn't she a silly girl,
Her little *?

Ross: Actually, I had quite the crime syndicate, pushing illegal printer cartridges under the name Julie's Toner. But I'm trying to put all that behind me now.

Dear Cousin Allen: Can't take a hint about the extended family members, can you?

Actually, I could have been even more indecipherable by using my married name, which is 谢. And there are far more people named Zhu Li Xie (or Hsieh or Zia or other variants) than Julie Steiner, if I really wanted to disappear online. But the idea of masquerading as a Chinese person seemed far more dishonest than simply reverting to the way my maiden name was spelled a few generations ago.

Claudia: Sorry to hear about your experience. In my case, it's the people in my parents' generation that I have to worry about. (The kids can still be counted on not to give the slightest rip what I say, or how it might reflect on the family.)