When I hear of someone but they don't have particular immediate importance to me, I mentally file away their name with the set of distinguishing characteristics. Sometimes I later hear of another person with a reasonably similar set of distinguishing characteristics, and I file their name away too. Then I carry these names around for a while, not realizing that they're two different people until I see them compared or contrasted.
Here are a few people I've recently learned are two different people:
- Van Halen and Van Morrison
- Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder
- Keith Olbermann and Anderson Cooper
- Peggy Nash and Cheri DiNovo
- Brian Posehn and Louis C.K.
3 comments:
Some of these folks are so different, they may be greatly relieved that you have distinguished between them!
With Van Halen and Van Morrison, I immediately recognized the difference in musical styles. But instead of thinking "Wait, there must be two artists with similar names," I thought "Wow, this guy has range!"
That's hilarious, especially because I love Van Morrison, and Van Halen was big during my teens. I'd like to think of other good pairs.
Pat Boone and Pat Benatar.
Jay-Z and Jay Sherman.
But Jay Sherman's not a real person. He's a cartoon character.
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