Wikipedia's daily List of Historical Anniversaries is a strange, but sometimes useful, thing. The list of births consists largely of names that mean nothing to me – and some of them are indeed strange. Born on this day, for example (in 1937) was one Baden Powell de Aquino, a Brazilian guitarist, who went by the professional name of 'Baden Powell' – a name that suggests almost anything but guitar playing, particularly in the bossa nova, samba and Latin jazz styles favoured by BP de Aquino.
This Baden Powell was a beneficiary of his father's enthusiasm for Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement and author of the imperishable Scouting for Boys. In Brazil, it is common for such parental enthusiasms to be inflicted on male offspring in the form of unlikely first names: Wikipedia lists, among many others, Wagner, Mozart, Donizetti, Emerson (as in Fitipaldi, the racing driver), Washington, Jefferson, Nobel and, er, Lenin. A curious convention – but it doesn't seem to have held Baden Powell de Aquino back.
(I fancy I might be hearing from my Brazilian follower Ricardo on this one. And, talking of foreign parts, I was startled to discover the other day that this blog has a bigger following in Sweden than anywhere else – indeed Sweden accounts for around two thirds of all views. What on earth could this mean?)
Friday, 6 August 2021
Baden Powell's Second Career
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Glad you remember me. Matter of fact there Is only the Baden Powell Guitar player, father of the afrosamba but a surname as a First nane Is usuale vere. Even Pelé Is a Edson...
ReplyDeleteWell, in America, one can come up with the writer Washington Irving, the secessionist Jefferson Davis, the football player Roosevelt (Rosie) Grier, etc. All these are drawing on American figures, you say? Well, there was a North Carolina politician of the late 18th Century who named his sons "Hyder Ali" and "Tipu Sultan": he approved of men who fought against the British.
ReplyDeleteAha – yes, it seems to be a continent-wide phenomenon. Back in the mother country, it never really caught on, though we do have a comedian called Milton Jones.
ReplyDeleteHo, I thought you were going to head in a different direction: "For anyone who is tired of life, the thrilling life of a spy should be the very finest recuperator." As endorsed by DB-P.
ReplyDeleteGreat quote, Pipistrello – the very finest recuperator indeed!
ReplyDelete