What's in a Name?

Have you ever received a “Message Request” in Facebook Messenger from a person you don’t know, who is not your Facebook friend, or a friend of anybody you know? I received just such a message today, and it made me chuckle. Here is what it said: “Hi would you be interested in publishing a children’s book I wrote and illustrated?” Then he attached a video, which I did not click on to view. I assume by the cover of said children’s book that it was a little more about the book, or perhaps he was showing the images of each page. Maybe the entire thing was some weird scam. Regardless, I found it amusing that I would receive a request like that.

Thanks, mister, but I’m not a book publisher. Flattered, really, but shop elsewhere.

My Facebook page does list that I’m working as a Project Assistant for Ice Cube Press, which is an independent publisher in the Midwest, but I’m an intern, not the boss. Facebook also displays that I am an Editor for the 4^th Iowa Chapbook Prize, but neither of those spells out to my being a publisher, or that I would even have any clout to help somebody get published. Seeing that message, however, was an entertaining start to my day.

In writing this, I decided to go look up that message again. The name of the guy who supposedly sent this message was Kevin Wendell Crumb, which kind of sounded familiar. I decided to Google the name and I’m even more convinced that it was a scam. Feeling less flattered, but still very amused. At the top of the Google search for the name Kevin Wendell Crumb was a “Villains Wiki Fandom” page, identifying this character as a villain who has 23 separate personalities living inside of him.

A little further down on the search was a listing for the movie Split, a 2016 American psychological horror thriller film. On the side of the Google search screen there were images from this movie. The main character, a villain by the name of Kevin Wendell Crumb, was played by actor James McAvoy. I definitely recognized these pictures from advertisements of this movie, but horror films are not my thing. Needless to say, I’ve never seen Split, nor do I plan to.

Now, I suppose, by some stretch of the imagination, it could be possible that this guy just happened to be given this very unusual name by his parents when he was born. But you’d think that if you had the name of a super villain from a psychological horror thriller film, you might want to seriously consider using a pen name if your goal is to be a children’s book author. One might argue that maybe he didn’t know there was that type of association with his name. But, come on, really? I am the last person on this planet who would know anything about horror movies, but I knew that name had some weird association. All it took was a simple Google search to know who he was…. or rather, who he wasn’t.

Hmmm…. Maybe I should Google my name.