Me or Not Me? That is the Question

The word “doppelganger” is a German term which has become part of the common vernacular. It is used to describe an exact duplicate or at least a look alike of someone. In most stories about “doppelgangers” the sighting of one portends bad luck or even death.

I’m not sure how I would react if I saw a replica of me walking down the street. Part of me would think, cool maybe I can talk him into going to work for me next week and I can sleep late and watch movies all day. The rest of me would be thinking, holy carbon copy, Batman, I have an evil twin. This is going to be like that episode of Knightrider, or was it The A-Team, or maybe, wait, it was Bewitched. Remember that mischievous Serena who was always making life harder for Samantha and Darrin, both Darrins– who, oddly enough, looked nothing alike.

I came across a new word the other day. A word related to doppelganger: “Googleganger”. This word refers to someone who has the same name you do who you find by typing your name into the box on the Google website.

Of course I had to do this. I found a few Chris Pyle’s out there in the world. There is a Chris Pyle who is an artist/illustrator from Indianapolis. He is described on one blog as having great style, full of color and whimsy. I have no idea what this Chris Pyle is like, but I know if my art was described as full of whimsy I’d want to slug the guy who said it. Whimsy has the artistic gravitas of cute or sweet. Kittens playing with a ball of yarn are whimsical. A toddler gleefully crawling on the floor with a passel of puppies is whimsical. Four years in art school, thousands of dollars in art supplies and eating ramen noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner in order to put one’s life and soul into one’s art is as whimsical as using a ball peen hammer to carefully break each one of your own toes. Whimsy this, pal.

There is a filmmaker named Chris Pyle. Hey, I once wanted to be a filmmaker named Chris Pyle. This Chris makes documentaries, mostly about nature and wildlife. According to his company’s website he has worked on the ice pack of the Arctic Ocean, the deserts of California and the storm-tossed Sea of Japan. I have no desire to freeze my ear lobes off in the Arctic, sweat like a state’s witness testifying against guys named Vinnie “Ice Pick” Martino, Johnny Shiv, and Benny the Multi-Speed Blender in the California desert or toss my lunch further than a steroid pumped shot putter in the storm-tossed Sea of Japan. Okay, I’ll let him be the filmmaker Chris Pyle.

The guy mentioned most often in the search results is Christopher H. Pyle. This is a very accomplished man. He is a professor at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts specializing in constitutional law, civil liberties, and American political thought. He has published learned texts about political history and human rights. Books like “The President, Congress, and the Constitution: Power and Legitimacy in American Politics”, “Extradition, Politics and Human Rights” and “Getting Away with Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes and the Rule of Law.” I’m sure at least one of these books is one your nightstand right now. Not because it is a bestselling page-turner you can’t wait to sink you cerebral teeth into, but because seventeen words into it you are snoring faster than a bear in January on heavy doses of Nyquil.
“Extradition, Politics and Human Rights” is currently ranked 1,686,988 on the Amazon Books bestsellers list and you better get your order in soon because they say they only have two copies in stock. I shouldn’t make fun of Christopher H. Pyle. His books are for sale on Amazon.com and my writing is available if you steal my laptop and open the documents file.

I am mentioned seven times in the first five pages listed when you search my name on Google which seems to me pretty impressive. I decided to try the “googleganger” thing with the name of a friend. This friend lives in Dodge and works for the school district so there are similarities, but he is eleven years younger so surely he is less accomplished than I. I won’t rub it in when I find he is not as well represented in the cyber search engine world. So, I type his name in and on the first five pages he is mentioned, well, uh, forty-four times…darn.