Computer, 1, Man, O: Computers didn’t like...
Computer, 1, Man, O: Computers didn’t like Stephen O’s last name because it was too short. Twice the 23-year-old South Korean native applied for credit cards, and twice he was turned down because bank computers could not recognize a single-letter last name. His car finance company knows him as “S.O. Stephen.” The computer at the Virginia Division of Motor Vehicles says he’s OO. When he tried to join a compact disc club, they wrote back three times asking him to spell his full name. The computer at the Credit Bureau Inc. listed him as “Ostephen.” Last week, O gave in to The Force, plunked down $20 and changed his legal name to Stephen Oh. Naturally, he has a sister named Jackie O.
* Beached: It was no day at the beach for New Jersey First Lady Lucinda Florio, who broke her left foot while playing tennis, thus delaying her trip to the shore with Gov. Jim Florio. The couple had planned to spend this week at the governor’s official beach home in Island Beach State Park. But swelling in the foot was too severe for doctors to set it in a cast immediately. The Florios hoped a cast could be put on by today. .
* Dog Tales: Spuds, a Dalmatian from Newport, S.C., is going to have a lot of explaining to do should he be called before his peers to discuss his latest heroics. He alerted sleeping Dirk Tanis, 15, that his house was on fire, which was fine. But he took the next step and, horror, of horrors, rescued a cat named Gizmo. Boy and cat are fine.
* Oh, Donna: Meanwhile, across the border in North Carolina comes word that there’s going to be a wedding in Charlotte Sept. 14. The bride is Donna Carter and the groom is Chuck Jones. This follows a tradition started by the Jones brothers in 1983 when Greg Jones married Donna Vestal and continued in 1986 when Jeff Jones married Donna Dunning. Sometimes the brothers try to take advantage of the situation, says the soon-to-be Donna-in-law. “One of them will say ‘Donna, would you get me a drink?’--figuring he has one chance in three somebody will get up and do it. But they’ve got the wrong Donnas. We tell them to get up and get it themselves.”
