Saturday, February 20, 2010

The Ellenbogen Objection

... was a great Robert Ludlum novel. No, I received a rather barbed note from a Dr. Ellenbogen, who seemed to think I had insulted the Ellenbogen name by postulating that Jerry Lewis would have fun saying it. Quite the contrary! It just happens to have the arrangement of syllables and the concluding "en" characteristic of words that Jerry Lewis likes to repeat. I love Jerry Lewis and I love the name. I'm not even sure how having a fun name to say could be construed as an insult, but the title Dr. Ellenbogen gave to his note was "Effete Echolalia," which I believe was meant to be hurtful.