It’s tax time.
While most people file their taxes in one country, I file my taxes in two. Why? Well, working in Qualcomm in San Diego during the summer of 2004 means that I have to file returns in the US and Canada.
At any rate, while I was at the post office below the TD Centre waiting to mail my forms to the IRS and FTB, the attendant at the counter took one look at my name and asked “Did you know that in Greek, George is actually Geevarghese?”
Now I don’t know if that’s strictly true, but right there I had one of those “No Sh*t!” moments.
A bit of background. I am a Christian Keralite. Specifically a Marthomite. There’s quite a bit of history associated with the formation of the Marthoma church and Christianity in Kerala, but it’s enough to state that we’re Syrian Christians with strong ecumenical relations with the Anglican church. Among my community and my immediate family the names Varghese and Geevarghese are common. Turns out that (Gee)Varghese is a “derivative of the Greek personal name GeÅrgios”. See here.
I found that fascinating. I’m interested to see the names in my family tree now…
UPDATE: I was curious enough to continue my search and came up with the following information. Amazing. There are people in my church with Varkey as their last name…
Stations
“Union Station, Bloor, Weston, Etobicoke North, Malton, Bramalea”
These are the station names I hear every morning and evening. While I’m on the topic of name mangling – has anyone wondered if Weston is actually a bastardization of “West End”?
Food for thought?
Cameras
Oops – forgot to say. The D50 and D70s are both real. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the D70s is significantly different from the D70. I’m begging that Nikon put a 8MP sensor in there… It’s funny – there’s a giant game of whack-a-mole going on in the forums out there concerning the leakage… Rumor is that the announcement will be made early April.
In related news, the D200 is supposedly real and will be announced over the summer for fall delivery.
People
[thinks]
That’s right – I met Herb on the train today. Turns out he works in Toronto too, which means that I’ll have someone to yap with on the way home.