i watched the premiere of Parenthood. in it, the father is named Zeek. really? zeek?

as someone who's child is named zeke, short for Ezekiel, i'm a little peeved.

see, in the bible thumping south, no one knows how to pronounce Ezekiel.

oddly enough, the book of ezekiel actually mentions a round object in the sky. yep, a ufo. on top of that, Ezekiel is the book which the character Jules, pulp fiction, quotes from:

"Jules: You read the Bible?


Ringo: Not regularly.

Jules: There's a passage I got memorized. Ezekiel 25:17. "The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you." I been sayin' that shit for years. And if you ever heard it, it meant your ass. I never really questioned what it meant. I thought it was just a cold-blooded thing to say to a motherfucker before you popped a cap in his ass. But I saw some shit this mornin' made me think twice. Now I'm thinkin': it could mean you're the evil man. And I'm the righteous man. And Mr. .45 here, he's the shepherd protecting my righteous ass in the valley of darkness. Or it could be you're the righteous man and I'm the shepherd and it's the world that's evil and selfish. I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth. The truth is you're the weak. And I'm the tyranny of evil men. But I'm tryin, Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be the shepherd."

Of course, Jules takes some artistic liberty with the passage.

When I named him Ezekiel, knowing his nickname would be Zeke, Zeke was always portrayed as a stupid hillbilly. Because of such, I nicknamed him Z-Man or I call him Z. He so loved the Dr. Suess ABC book and I played up the letter Z. XYZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. And he'd giggle. And we'd giggle together.

His friends thought he was special to have a skater clothing company named after him (not really named after him. sadly, now they do only snow gear)He has quite a few Ezekiel t-shirts. Lucky boy!

I've heard of Zekes, yet I have never met another Ezekiel. Tracy blasts me for making his name so hard to spell as a 4 year old. He's been called Zack (his class was full of Zacks) and Hezikia.

I gave him a unique name because I knew he'd be unique. I sat in a row of two Lauries and two Loris. Four Loris/Lauries, pretty maids all in a row.

If nothing else, I gave him a unique name, and for Parenthood to bastardize it by naming Craig T. Nelson's character Zeek...are we to believe his parents were illiterate?

I'm kind of ticked. The name Zeke has left the poor dumb hillbilly genre, thankfully, but now, to change Zeke to Zeek? That's ridiculous.

I took a chance naming him that, knowing the connotations behind it. He had the option of being Z-Man (if he wanted to DJ) Z, Zeke or Ezekiel.

Kind of funny, Iceback carries (or used to) the Pulp Fiction wallet with Samuel L. Jackson's Ezekiel speech. Yet he's only talked to him once in 6 months.

btw, Sergei supposedly had to be put down. God rest his puppy soul.