What Did You Say His Name Is?

The Curmudgeon lives in New Jersey, which has a vacant U.S. Senate seat following the death of Frank Lautenberg.  The Democratic primary, to be held in August, features three reasonably high-profile candidates:  Newark celebrity mayor Cory Booker, U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, and U.S. Representative Rush Holt.

On the surface, all three would make decent senators, and certainly respectable representatives of their party in the general election, but with about a month until the primary election, The Curmudgeon still hasn’t made up his mind for whom he will vote.  The candidates are certainly not going to help him make up his mind, either, because in New Jersey, candidates for state-wide office seldom travel south of Trenton, essentially ignoring a large chunk of a small state.  (It’s ironic, when the Curmudgeon thinks about it.  He moved to New Jersey from a part of Philadelphia that’s ignored within Philadelphia’s city government to a part of New Jersey that’s ignored within New Jersey state government and a part of the town in which he lives – Marlton – that’s ignored by the government of that town.  It looks like he picks where to live about as successfully as he picks whom to date, which may account for his still being single at the advanced age of fifty-five – well, that and, you know, the curmudgeonliness.)

So The Curmudgeon was surprised – and pleased – last week when a campaign volunteer for candidate Frank Pallone knocked on his door to offer him some campaign literature.

Unfortunately, that volunteer made the mistake of opening his mouth and asking if The Curmudgeon was interested in his candidate.

He referred to the candidate by name, saying “Pallone” as if it rhymes with “Baloney” instead of “Pah-loan,” which is how the name is pronounced.  When The Curmudgeon questioned the pronunciation – surely you didn’t expect him to allow such a thing to pass without comment – the young man, still in his teens, insisted “That’s how they told me to pronounce it.”

It makes you wonder about the candidate.  If he can’t get the people promoting his candidacy to pronounce his name correctly, what chance does he have of making any kind of difference in the U.S. Senate?