Hi! My name is....

by Dan Phillips

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches,

and favor is better than silver or gold

(Proverbs 22:1)

It's been a sort of back-burner bubbling joke about how I sometimes feel like the fifth Beatle here.

Now, let me be transparently and emphatically clear: call me nothing, call me anything (-- well, except "Clinton"), no matter: I'm just happy, glad, and giddily grateful to be here. As long as folks read my stuff, give it a thought, and God puts it to some use to His glory, I'm a happy man. Plus, there are advantages to anonymity; for instance, the five-stars tend to draw more fire.

Having said that... it's become apparent to me that maybe a little post on this might be called for. Perhaps with some helpful illustrations?

So, without further eloquence:

Here is a picture of me canoeing in one of the Twin Lakes, in Mammoth Lakes, California, and not being (contrary to early Frank here) David.


I think I'm... let's see... the right canoe. We later fell in. Br-r-r! Got me now? No? Okay, then....

Here is a picture of me and and my #2 son Josiah, at one of the Sherwin Lakes in the Eastern Sierra, not being (among other things, contrary to more recent Frank, here and here) "Dan Philips."


Beautiful day. Forecast had predicted snow flurries, cold; nah. Have me placed? Oh. Well....

Here's a picture of me dipping my head in the East Walker River, and not being (contrary to another blog, though I forget which one) Frank.

Man, that was cold. All-good? No? Hunh. Let's see....

Here is a picture of me standing in front of a pub in Scotland named The Clachan, licensed in the 1734 -- not being (contrary to Tim Challies, here) James.

Surely that has me sorted out for you. No?

Here's me exeriencing my only-ever personal encounter with the Atlantic Ocean, from the other side, off the Scottish Isle of Iona, from where Columba evangelized and discipled the Picts in the sixth century -- and not being (contrary to Steve Camp, who did then very nicely correct himself) Don.


Don't really have me yet? Sigh; okay, here goes. This is me leaning over the wall of Doune Castle (Monty Python fans would recognize it), and not being (contrary to a poster here, though I forget the thread) Phil.


Have me sorted out now? Oh, dear. Then, I'm afraid I'll have to... I'm going to have to bring out the... here's... this:

My wife's favorite picture of me (NOT mine). I'm wearing what our hostess in Scotland called "a Jimmy hat," and I'm most definitely not being (apparently contrary to our beloved host and head Pyro Phil himself -- if a fellow-blogger who brought this to my attention has her Phil-ippian exegesis right) Daniel the Doulogos-guy. (That mistake has been made before.)


(You know, if you'll forgive yet another excessive use of parentheses, this does raise a horrifying thought. What if Phil didn't really mean to invite me to join his team-blog? What if he thought he was inviting another Daniel? Some were, quite understandably, baffled at the time.... What if it was all just a horrible mistake? Well, never mind; it's all-good. Mistaken-identity or not, I'm here. Just so long as no one is nuts enough publicly to let the cat out of the... d'oh!)

Besides, maybe I can torture a special blessing out of a fragment of the KJV of Luke 6:22 -- "Blessed are ye, when men ...cast out your name...."

So, for now, signing off, I remain, as ever, your faithful and devoted....

D-a-n P-h-i-l-l-i-p-s

(If anyone wants to know anything more serious about my background, you can find some blah-blah-blah here.)

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