Hi! I have a Patreon page that has a bunch of neat extras and cool stuff!

From time to time I reflect on the odd luck that I’ve had working at The Bookstore and remaining the only Mike on the payroll of Westgate, Redwood City, Stevens Creek, etc.

Mike and/or Michael has been one of the most common names on the planet throughout various languages and cultures. Michael is a pretty classic name so of course a lot of people are going to share that name with me.

Other common names that have been shared with coworkers were David, and John. At Westgate alone there were three Johns, three Kats, and four Davids all on staff. Paging for people could get confusing. Dave Z, Dave F, Dave E, Dave D…

One Kat got tired of everyone confusing them all and insisted we call them “Kitty.” …that lasted all of four seconds.

Then there are those people who have a solid sounding last name and you can just use that when talking to them or paging them up to the registers for back up. It never worked for me though, Lugaresi is kind of a mouthful.