July 11, 2011

Harper Seven.

What to name your 4th child, when your first 3 are Brooklyn, Romeo and Cruz.
The Seven in the name is believed to be a reference to David's football number when he played for Manchester United and England, while the Harper could be referring to Harper's Bazaar magazine or perhaps To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee.
When I think Harper, I think "Paul Newman is 'Harper'" — a 1966 movie slogan. Here's 1 minute and 41 seconds of Paul Newman as Harper, confronting Lauren Bacall in a tiny festival of bad acting:



I remember seeing this movie at the time. I was 15. I remember having the realization that I wasn't as good at watching movies as the filmmakers expected you to be. I kept having that why is he going there now? struggle to keep up with the elliptical editing and thinking other people in the audience somehow knew. They got it. It was cool that Harper knew where to go next. You knew and he knew. But I didn't know. I blamed myself.

53 comments:

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
The Crack Emcee said...

I remember having the realization that I wasn't as good at watching movies as the filmmakers expected you to be. I kept having that why is he going there now? struggle to keep up with the elliptical editing and thinking other people in the audience somehow knew. They got it. It was cool that Harper knew where to go next. You knew and he knew. But I didn't know. I blamed myself.

Of course, you did - but now you can Test Your Powers Of Precognition with TMR!!!!!!!

Just click the link and there's a simple and easy test to see if you have the power to see the future - and it's FREE!!!! (The test - not the future,...)

Fred4Pres said...

Paul Newman was a great actor, but he did play in a lot of forgetable movies (I have not seen the film with Lauren Bacall and I am not incluidng that one since the clip seemed okay). I watched Quintet on Netflix the other day. Well I should say I watched about 20 minutes of it and then got bored.

Fowl Ideas said...

Some people get very creative and vulgar when naming their kids. This one isn't bad.

Fred4Pres said...

I give the Beckhams credit for having kids.

madAsHell said...

I haven't a problem with Harper Seven, but Romeo!?!? He was a tragic character.

Why does she keep saying "puss, puss, puss"? Is that the characters name??

Wince said...

There's a prominent English football goal keeper named Steve Harper.

traditionalguy said...

Babies are where it's at.

On Sunday mornings we see 15 to 20 baptisms every month at Peachtree Presbyterian.

It never ceases to make me feel good.

SunnyJ said...

Reminds me of being 6yr old and wanting to play CLUE with my older teenage cousins. I could never figure out how they knew it was Miss Scarlett in the library with a knife.

I kept playing and losing and then it's like I remember the actual moment that I got a CLUE!!! Lightbulb moment and, I was killer after that.

They called it CLUELESS up until then...

The Crack Emcee said...

These people have no originality anymore,...

William said...

There used to be a bourbon named I.W. Harper. The guess here is that the tough talking detective was named after the bourbon and not the fashion magazine.....After the passage of a little time, tough talk sounds as mannered and insincere as Victorian love letters.

Titus said...

That was painful.

Puss, puss, puss.

Geoff Matthews said...

Why not Stephen Harper, PM of Canada?
Makes as much sense as a British athlete caring about a US author.

Fred4Pres said...

I went on to Crack's link (thanks that was good) and saw this on the sidebar and clicked it.

No disagreement about stupid names, but what is with those faces she makes? That was sort of cruel too.

Titus said...

There is a vaginal mesh ad on tv right now.

What do you use vaginal mesh for?

Titus said...

Does the vag require a lot of maintenance?

Titus said...

I read somewhere there is a special vag vacuum cleaner to get out sand and dirt and dingleberries.

Is there such a product and if so is there a demo on the internet?

Vag

The Dude said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Phil 314 said...

Are women frigid anymore?

Quaestor said...

I thoroughly understand your frustration with this sixties hipster take on the traditional detective yarn.

Lew Harper or Lew Archer or what the hell, all cheap derivatives of Philip Marlowe...

Harper could have been better with somebody else wearing the gunshoes. Newman was an memorable actor who got better with age, but in the sixties he was working on the "cool" persona, which he never quite accomplished. Perhaps because his acting style couldn't separate cool from disinterested. The classic detective is always cool, but never disinterested, else why would he go to the lengths that he does, inhabit his seedy office, endure the beatings he takes at the hands of thugs and corrupt cops? A few years later James Garner made a much superior film (on a B budget!) called Marlowe based on the Raymond Chandler novel "The Little Sister".

Obama does understand cool, either.

traditionalguy said...

A clip of two Harpies with a cynic is apropos to discussing the name Harper.

Quaestor said...

Correction:


Obama does NOT understand cool, either.

Damned fingers (that's pronounced Damn-ned fingers, gotta have the iambic meter)

Fred4Pres said...

I can't tell whether you are sincere, just trying to shock the grown ups or profoundly retarded. Of course, in your case, those are not mutually exclusive conditions.

I like Titus and think most of his "outrageness" is a schtick, but that was funny.

edutcher said...

Getting back to the name, giving your kid a middle name of your jersey number is like Little Zero naming his dog, "Bo", or Teddy Kennedy naming his dog, "Splash".

PS Dialogue was really bad in the mid 60s.

vet66 said...

Titus;
Puss Puss Puss!

MayBee said...

I saw David and Victoria and the kids out on Father's Day. Girlfriend was 9 months pregnant and wearing a pair of 7" Louboutins. Maybe that's what the 7 is about.

Known Unknown said...

I like the name Harper. It was in the running for my daughter. As was Evelyn. We went with Madelyn.

Curious George said...

Titus has become a parody of....Titus.

Oh well, bandwidth is cheap.

Jeff Gee said...

Film editing in the late sixties-early seventies was really exciting. Jump cuts, flash forwards, split screens, high speed montages, demented non sequitors. Figuring out what was going on was a blast, if you were the kind of person who has a blast figuring out what's going on. I kind of am. My sister (born 1949), who is 6 years older than I am, was not, and often came home from dates furious and absolutely certain that the people who claimed to 'get' movies like If..., Performance, even Brewster McCloud were lying, and that the people who made them were trying to put one over on her.

wv: reshert. This scene still makes sense. We'll have to reshert it.

Carol_Herman said...

Now, I want to see Harper!

I used to avoid Paul Newman. In the beginning he was just a face. Couldn't act his way out of a paper bag. But Harper doesn't look bad, as far as what hollywood delivers.

I wonder how many people will be tempted to see it. Considering that's what movie trailers are supposed to do.

As for the name of a child? I thought Harper is pretty. And, lots of times we all just keep our middle names hidden.

Mine is Simone. One day a kid at school saw the teacher's book. And, everyone had fun calling me Simon-E.

Should I laugh? My parents were expecting a boy. The only name they had picked out was Simon. I was born on Christmas Day. My exhausted father left the hospital. There weren't phones all over back then, in 1939. He went home.

The nurse came into the room and told my exhausted mother she needed to know my name, because the hospital had to submit records within 24 hours. There was no way my mom could call my dad. And, she said she began crying. (My mom was tough. She rarely cried.) But she could see me being "baby girl" all my life. When the nurse went over to the bassinet. Lifted me up. And, said "why not Carol?" For Christmas Carol.

My nice Jewish mother thought this was a real problem solver. I've been Carol ever since.

G Joubert said...

From the link: She weighed a healthy 7lbs 10oz and arrived at 7.55 this morning, here in LA.

So now we need Mick to weigh in on whether little Harper Seven is a natural born US citizen, and allowed to be POTUS some day.

Curious George said...

"Carol_Herman said...

When the nurse went over to the bassinet. Lifted me up. And, said "why not Carol?" For Christmas Carol."

I went to high school with both Carol Christmas and her sister Mary.

I kid you not.

My son went to school with a girl whose name was Eden Seamon. Sad but true.

vnjagvet said...

That was bad acting. What ever became of Pamela Tiffin?

Crimso said...

I thought everybody would know that "Harper" is a D&D reference. Forgotten Realms, specifically.

And Seven was definitely a nod to Seinfeld.

Carol_Herman said...

July is the 7th month. The 10th is Sunday. Harper Seven, works better than Harper Sunday?

Awesome said...

George Costanza is pissed:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRUdaWZ4FN0

Carol_Herman said...

To: Crack Emcee at the beginning (9:13AM)

Marlon stuck a cigarette butt in David Duke's nose?

At least Justice Prosser didn't put him in a headlock. Or is that a choke-hold? One word? Or two?

Carol_Herman said...

Awesome. The link is so precious!

How did a show about nothing cover so much territory?

Also, now I can pass a sport's trivia test. Mickey Mantle's shirt number was also 7.

And, I used to think the names of players were on the backs of their shirts, just in case they got walloped in the head ... they'd look at the back of their shirts, to remember who they were.

Or, as a waiter, who once needled Don Rickles, and got him to respond, was asked "Hey, waiter, what is your name?"

And, the waiter turned to his back, flip his underwear label out so he could see it. And, said, "fruit of the loom."

Don Rickles collapsed in laughter.

Jim said...

Except that lower in the same article, a family friend explains that Harper is just a name that Victoria has liked for a long time and that Seven is a lucky number and that the baby was born in July, etc.

So in other news: stupid media speculation is STILL stupid media speculation

Carol_Herman said...

Today, Lauren Bacall's character in Harper's. Yesterday, Ericka Jong.

Shows ya what was once hot ... loses its allure.

The "puss, puss, puss," was a derogatory against her daughter.

Was the character "frigid" ... or did she just hate her husband, ralph?

What's the clue with the wheelchair?

When Ralph left, did he take his will with him? Is the story a search for the real will?

Did anybody see this movie?

Fred4Pres said...

Awesome, go up to Crack's post above yours. He even hyperlinked it for you.

mccullough said...

Newman reprised the role in the 1975 flick The Drowning Pool, which was a much better movie.

ricpic said...

I still don't know where to go next. But I do know to go. So there's that. And I don't mean go in the Titus sense. I mean move, act, choose a direction even if you lack conviction and go there.

Steven said...

Geoff, my first thought was also the Candian PM. But I'm not sure a British athlete wouldn't care about an author simply because the author was American. Her book is probably considered more important here than over there (I don't actually know). But it's not as though nobody over here has heard of any British authors, and the guess comes from a British source.

Palladian said...

If they named the baby after the author of "To Kill A Mockingbird", wouldn't the baby be named Truman?

Methadras said...

This is your first daughter amongst a sea of boys and what do you name her? Something stupid.

Ben Calvin said...

I prefer the name Harper Valley Beckham. Then her nickname could be PTA.

ndspinelli said...

Marlon Baker is obviously a southpaw.

Newman's politics are irrelevant to me..Cool Hand Luke! The Hustler!

Peter Hoh said...

I know a woman named Nine and another woman named One.

ken in tx said...

No, women are no longer frigid. Either their men do not eat pussy, or they are lesbians, but I repeat myself.

Robert Holmgren said...

Seven was the name George Costanza wanted to name his prospective child on Seinfeld. His reason was that seven was Mickey Mantle's number. We're just living out all those Seinfeld episodes.

Clyde said...

At least that woman in Texas who gave birth to the 16 pound, 1 ounce baby didn't name him "Sixteen."

Wasn't there a Gary Seven character on the original Star Trek series?

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