CONFUSION ON THE HUDSON

Yesterday's plane crash and rescue on the Hudson River was pretty amazing. To have a commercial airliner crash into a river in winter makes you think of the Air Florida crash in Washington in 1982. Remembering that 75 of the 80 people on that plane died makes it all the more amazing that not one person on the New York flight died. Tremendous credit has been given to the aircrew of the New York flight for that.

Learning about the aircrew raises the troubling question of nicknames though. The captain was Chesley B. Sullenberger III, known as "Sully." Sully? No, no, no you say. Sully is a nickname for Sullivan today (with a wink towards Sandra Boynton). I understand that Sully for Sullenberger makes sense, but I think Sullivan has monopolized "Sully" at this point. If a guy tells me to call him Sully, I am assuming his name is Sullivan. And so are you. I don't really know what to think about this, but I think Sully here should have several optional nicknames for people like me to use. I propose The Eye (his initials are C.B.S., like the network, get it?) or Trey (obvious, I know), S-berg, or just plain Bad Ass.