It's only a hyphen

It wasn’t until I got married and decided to hyphenate my last name that I realized what fear a simple piece of punctuation instills in people.

Changing your name, whether it's due to marriage, divorce, adoption, or parents who wanted you to get beat up, is hard enough as it is. And yet I decided to make it even harder.

Little did I know that somehow I was the very first person on earth to ever choose to hyphenate. I mean clearly, if anyone else had done it before, maybe people would know how to deal with it, right?

Apparently not. So to Jada Pinkett-Smith, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, and Carol Moseley-Braun: I know your pain.

My bank started things off by telling me to pick just one last name. Then, a certain credit card company made life particularly difficult for me. “We don’t have hyphens,” the representative told me over the phone. “Okay, but um, that’s my name,” I responded. “Sorry. Nothing we can do,” he said.

Somehow people with other pieces of punctuation in their name don't face the same challenges. No one gets a puzzled look when they hear a last name like O'Malley. It hardly seems fair.

Every time I go to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy I have to ready myself for the inevitable confusion. I start out by saying “My last name is B-S. The first name is Alisa.” Then I get a befuddled look from the pharmacy technician. “It’s hyphenated,” I explain. Then they ask “Okay, so what’s it under.” I didn’t realize I’m supposed to be familiar with the store’s filing system. This has been going on for over two and a half years.

Now I’m fine with getting cards addressed to me as just Alisa B. or Alisa S., even though neither is technically correct. Heck, sometimes I use one or the other if the situation suites me. It’s the variations that get to me. Please don't mash both last names together. That just looks silly.

I read in the Sun a few months ago that Stephanie Rawlings Blake, president of the Baltimore City Council, got fed up with people calling her Stephanie Rawlings or Stephanie Blake and decided to hyphenate. I hope it works for her.

When it comes to me, I'm not changing anything. Both last names are all mine, like it or not. And hey, as long as the people who handle my paycheck get it right, I'll be just fine.

Tony vs. Tony

On the evening of Sunday, June 10, there are two very important television events – The last episode of The Sopranos and the 2007 Tony Awards presentation. Both shows air simultaneously and I can’t decide which one deserves my live attention. It all comes down to Tony vs. Tony.

The Sopranos finale is a long time coming and I desperately need resolution to all of the issues that have been building up over the years. This is the first season we actually have HBO and I can watch the show in real-time, as opposed to catching up on Netflix. This episode is certainly something everyone is talking about the next morning.

But as much as I love the Sopranos, when you’re a huge Broadway fan like I am, you can’t just skip the Tonys. This year is especially interesting for me because I’ve seen more of the eligible shows than I have in any other year.

So let's discuss, starting with The Sopranos:

The writers have done a wonderful job so far in wrapping up this, the last season. I lost interest a bit last season but all of the imagery and symbolism is back. In the pilot we saw Tony out in the backyard at the grill. This season, we see Christopher out in his backyard doing the grilling for the family. Of course Tony still had plenty of advice for Christopher. And looking back on last night's episode, maybe Christopher would have been better off listening to Tony a bit more often.

Rich and I have been fans of the show since the first season. We even took a Sopranos tour a few years ago when we were up in the New York/Northern Jersey area. The tour took us around to the Soprano hotspots like Satriales and the Bada Bing. (The Bing is actually a strip club called Satin Dolls. Fun fact: The ATM inside dispenses $1 bills.)

But it's just a short drive up 95 from Sopranoland where we find Broadway -- such a magical place.

While the Tony nominations don’t come out until tomorrow morning, there’s a very good chance that Spring Awakening, a new coming-of-age musical based on the controversial 1891 Frank Wedekind play, could do very well. We saw this a few weeks ago and were completely enthralled.

Our seats for Spring Awakening could not have been better -- we were on the stage itself. The actors actually sat among us. We could see every bead of sweat and glob of saliva. When the cast took its final bow, we were right there on stage looking out over the standing ovation. There is no more amazing feeling for a theater fan than that.

In addition to Spring Awakening, we were also lucky enough to have great seats for the new musical, Legally Blonde, while it was still in previews. This show is so fun and I predict will make it big on Broadway. I’m counting down the days until the original cast recording is released in July.

And then there’s Les Miserables – the show Rich and I both adore. Between us, we’ve seen it at least 30 times. The revival opened in November and we’ve been to see it twice already.
Assuming these shows are nominated, the Tonys will feature performances from each of them.

I can't watch both shows live. I'm going to have to pick one and TiVo the other. It's just a matter of which one wins out.

To quote Avenue Q, which won the 2004 Tony Award for best musical: "Why does life have to be so hard?"