They Spel Their Names with One Les Leter Than Usual

I was relieved to read that New England Patriots defenseman Tedy Bruschi went home from the hospital yesterday after suffering a mild stroke earlier in the week; he seems like a good guy and obviously did a great job for his team in the Super Bowl. It also got me to thinking about the unusual spelling of his name (I've never heard of another Tedy with one "d" before) and how that usually seems to happen only in sports; joining Tedy on this unusual roster would be hockey player Dany Heatley and former baseball manager Jimy Williams. I wonder if that's all of them; has anyone ever heard of a Boby, Bily, Lary or Tomy, in sports or otherwise?

Now I have run across a plethora of truncated nicknames before, but minus the "y" on the end: joining me as groomsmen in my sister's wedding party were Jef with one "f," Mat with one "t" and Jud with one "d." (And yes, technically I would be Kev with one "v," but I've never, ever heard of a "Kevv" before and would feel bad for him if I did.) And although the best man in that same wedding joined me in lacking a shortened name, he did share his with a former drummer for Weather Report (and no, it wasn't this guy).

Speaking of missing letters: I passed a Taco Bell sign earlier today that was attempting to advertise SPICY CHICKEN, but the Y was missing from the word "spicy"--a particularly unfortunate occurrence, considering the ethnicity of the restaurant. I wondered if the letter accidentally fell off, or if someone swiped it; this would have required climbing a ladder, which seems like an awful lot of trouble to create a racial epithet that's not even in common usage anymore. At any rate, I hope someone notices and fixes it before too long, because all I could say when I saw it was "ouch."

This also reminded me of when I was a little kid and I saw an ad on one of those portable roadside signs on wheels (which I think have, thankfully, been outlawed in many communities now) for a company called DRAPES BY VIRGINIA. As you can imagine, people were always stealing the D--so much so that she changed the first word to "draperies"...after which people still stole the D. Maybe she should have just given up and gone with "curtains."