Among their many gifts, controllers are a great bunch for appointing nicknames. BDK (for Big Dumb Kid), Sandblower, E4, The Incredible Bulk, Two Dogs, Ho-Hum, Murph-the-Surf, are all proud recipients of an ATC assigned nickname. Some of those I'll chronicle sometime, as the origins can be entertaining.

I am a first initial person. Because I’m a Junior, and to avoid confusion while growing up, I always went by a version of my middle name, Rodney—Roddy as a youth (it took me more than 50 years to break some of my relatives of calling me that), then Rod through school and as an adult. However, I have always used L. Rodney as my legal name, and so it appeared on my name tag at work.

I don’t remember how long it took for someone to concatenate that and morph it into the nickname LRod, but I remember who did it: Andy Varnes. I loved it. I thought it was the perfect combination of accuracy, respectability, and frivolity. It’s part of my email address even today.

The only thing it doesn't have is a great story…

Last updated: 22 March 2009