PEOPLE : Lopping Off the Noriega Name

Poor Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega. As if these legal problems weren’t enough, you have to wonder if he’s given any thought to changing his name.

Not the Manuel Noriega part, but his first name--as given to him by the press: Panamanian strongman.

He’s not the first to be tagged this way.

After all, there was Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, globe-trotting diplomat Henry Kissinger and Marxist President Salvador Allende of Chile.

“You would have thought Marxist President was the position Allende had run for and been elected to,” writes Edwin Newman--that’s television newsman Edwin Newman--in “Strictly Speaking.”

According to Newman, journalists automatically and unnecessarily add words, names and even initials because they have a “desire for weightiness.”

He cites the Associated Press’s use of Argentine President Juan D. Peron.

“The D,” writes Newman “is to keep you from confusing Juan D. Peron with the Juan Q. Peron also elected president of Argentina.”

So what is to become of Panamanian Strongman? He could go the way of Right-Wing Laotian Strongman Phoumi Nosavan, who, writes Newman, “turned out to be Right-Wing Laotian Weakman Phoumi Nosavan.”