Pseudonyms: Fictional Superheroes

Pseudonyms are frequently used with fictional characters in films, on TV, in books and in comic books..

Clint Eastwood and Calvin Klein are names applied to fictional Marty McFly in Back To The Future .

As a Seinfeld fan, I know that Art Vandelay is a pseudonym used by George Costanza.

On TV's Breaking Bad, Heisenberg is the pseudonym taken by Walter White, and in the series prequel, Better Call Saul, Saul Goodman is the name taken by James "Jimmy" McGill.

On TV's long running series Doctor Who, the protagonist is known simply as The Doctor.

Do you remember The Shadow (Lamont Cranston) from the classic radio series?

TV Trivia: Who took the pseudonyms Regina Phalange and Ken Adams?  It was Phoebe Buffay and Joey Tribbiani on Friends.

Do you know Lord Voldemort's "real" name? Tom Marvolo Riddle is the character's name in the Harry Potter Series.

If you read the James Bond novels or watch the films, you might know that M is Sir Miles Messervy and Q is the code name for Major Boothroyd.

The Scarlet Pimpernel is actually the character Sir Percy Blakeney.

In The Three Musketeers we meet Athos (Armand de Sillègue d'Athos d'Autevielle, Le Comte de La Fère) and d'Artagnan (Charles de Batz-Castelmore), Porthos (Isaac de Porthau, Baron du Vallon de Bracieux de Pierrefonds) and Aramis (Henri d'Aramitz, le Chevalier d'Herblay).

Zorro is the name taken by Don Diego de la Vega.

Mr. Underhill is a name used by Frodo Baggins) in the Lord Of The Rings series.

         

Comic book characters, especially superheroes, almost always have pseudonyms.

1. The Hulk (Dr. Robert Bruce Banner) - Marvel Comics
2. Spider-Man (Peter Benjamin Parker) - Marvel Comics
3. Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) - Marvel Comics
4. Wolverine (Logan, James Howlett) - Marvel Comics
5. Captain America (Steven Grant "Steve" Rogers) - Marvel Comics
6. Superman (Kal-El / Clark Kent) - DC Comics
7. Wonder Woman (Princess Diana of Themyscira / Diana Prince) - DC comics
8. Batman (Bruce Wayne) - DC Comics
9. Catwoman (Selina Kyle) - DC Comics and as Patience Phillips in the 2004 film
10. Rorschach (Walter Joseph Kovacs) - Watchmen (Alan Moore graphic novel)
11. Doctor Octopus (Dr. Otto Gunther Octavius) - Marvel Comics
12. The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) - DC Comics
13. The Riddler (Dr. Edward Nigma) - DC Comics
14. Huntress (Helena Wayne) - DC Comics
15. Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) - DC Comics
16. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) - DC Comics
17. Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) - DC Comics
18. The Flash (Jay Garrick) - DC Comics
19. The Flash (Barry Allen) - DC Comics
20. The Flash (Wally West) - DC Comics
21. The Flash (Bart Allen) - DC Comics

Obelism

Obelism is the practice of annotating manuscripts with marks set in the margins. Modern obelisms are used by editors when proofreading a manuscript or typescript.

One example is the "stet." Stet is is Latin for "Let it stand," and it is used by editors or authors to mean "disregard the previous mark." Another obelism is "dele" for delete.

The word "obelus/obelos" and the symbol comes from ὀβελός, the Ancient Greek word for a sharpened stick, spit, or pointed pillar. This is the same root as that of the word "obelisk."

An obelos was placed by editors on the margins of manuscripts going all the way back to the ancient writings of Homer. They would indicate lines that were doubtfully Homer's.

Three basic variants of dotted obelos glyphs

Tsunami

The word tsunami unfortunately turns up in the news regularly as this devastating effect of earthquakes is not uncommon. It is particularly common particularly in the Pacific Islands and coasts. An earthquake far out in the ocean is capable of creating enough vibration to displace massive amounts of seawater and send deadly waves at islands and coastlines.

It should not be surprising that the term comes from the Pacific islands of Japanese. Two words are combined:  TSU  (pronounced sue) which means "harbor" and NAMI (nah me) which means "wave." The word distinguishes other words to describe waves as a very large one that enter a normally safe harbor.

Katsushika Hokusai: The Great Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura) 
The waves in this work are sometimes mistakenly referred to as tsunami (津波),
but they are more accurately called okinami (沖波), great off-shore waves.