It's a long storyBasically I have a habit of sticking stubbornly to my guns even when it's blindingly obvious that I'm wrong. When I founded a magazine years ago and everyone told me it was a big mistake (as usual) I named it in tribute after the man who arguably made the biggest cock-up of all time, but who stuck to his guns all the same: the ancient astronomer Ptolemy, who pronounced that the Earth was the centre of the universe (much later overturned by the heliocentric, or sun-based system we all now now to be true).
Fifteen years later the magazine's still around, and I'm stuck with the nick-name Ptolemy.
The short version meanwhile is that I also have a tortoise named Ptolemy, so I tend to just tell people I'm named after him. It's easier.
(Fifteen years later the magazine's still around, and I'm stuck with the nick-name Ptolemy.
The short version meanwhile is that I also have a tortoise named Ptolemy, so I tend to just tell people I'm named after him. It's easier.
Ptolemy the man with the silent pea,
Thu 9 Mar 2006, 16:26,
archived)