A Rose By Any Other Name Would be a Tulip

I can't help but feel a certain measure of respect for people who carve themselves into what they desire to become. It always ends in disaster, but to live if only briefly as an image with a false name to enhance your glamor has some appeal. Norma Jean Baker and Archibald Leach carved themselves into two of the greatest movie stars in history. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, Iusef Djugashvili, and Lev Davidovich Bronstein became three of the most infamous revolutionaries to ever live. All five are seen below and instantly recognized:







It is only natural that most who live these lives do not live them happily: What human can survive for any length of time as an ideal? And to have your name thrust upon you, as in the case of poor Adolf Hitler Campbell, who has recently been taken into custody from his family. . .

I digress. I post this in followup to the below post, and I don't believe people go far enough. All leaders should be as the Popes, renaming themselves as they deem appropriate. The mayor of Pittsburgh doesn't go far enough, he should append "the great" or "Steelersareawesome" to his middlename. Furthermore, Steelerstahl isn't redundant enough, it should be Steelerstahlacierχάλυβας鋼鉄강철açoстальacero for now, and once people get the hang of that it should be expanded to encompass twenty more languages, then a hundred.

Oh yes, an addenda: the title of the post. A rose by any other name smelling as sweet is one of the most universally loved lines in Shakespeare. What most people don't know is that it may have held an ironic meaning. The Rose was, at the time, a theater that headquartered the acting company that rivaled Shakespeare's (and one that he had actually used himself from time to time prior to the Globe's construction). Elizabethan theatres, as you may know, had no toilets. Furthermore, the ground level was densely packed and standing room only, and Elizabethans seldom bathed. A Rose by any other name most certainly didn't smell so sweet, and the theory goes that this line was intended to demonstrate Juliet's naivete, not be some profound declaration to be taken at face value.