First, she thinks the award is premature, given that there are 11 months to go before we welcome in a new year and a new, greater America. (Didja get the political point there?)
Secondly, she says that Chun In-bum ought not to be eligible for the award, because it's not an "English" name, meaning it probably means sometehing un-funny in Korean, and is only funny to us because it sounds like... well... "funny" is in the mind of the reader/hearer.
We take issue with that assertion. To us, "Chun In-bum" just sounds funny. And, believe it or not, "Bum" is not an uncommon name in Korea. There was a story during the Vietnam War about the Korean Foreign Minister, whose name made Americans laugh. It was Lee Bum Suk.. Embarrassed TV bingo-callers (newscasters who read off the Autocue) tried to soften it up a bit by pronouncing it as "Lee Boom Sook", but Mr Lee made it clear that, no, it was "Lee Bum Suck".
OK, forget the Korean names. Our reader wants a nice American name? Walt has one for ya, taken from p. 144 of An American Company: the Tragedy of United Fruit, by Thomas P. McCann, a former PR executive of the company. (Crown Publishers, New York, 1976).
"One of the company's supervisors, who later rose to become an Assistant Manager of one of the tropical divisions, was a Texan named Remington Patterson Coon. His friends called him Pat."
The author does not mention Mr Coon's race, but given his position in one of the great imperialist American companies, we'll guess he was white. Anyway, his name is not entered in this year's contest. Further nominations are welcome.
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