But embellishments aside, this is the (mostly) true story of my last name.
That's me! A long time ago!
(Why am I telling you this? Well, as I publish more designs, people sometimes like to talk about them. And sometimes even on podcasts! But then they get to the part where they have to say my name, and I feel bad for them, because through no fault of their own, they're going to mispronounce it. )
Once upon a time in the early 20th C, my great-grandparents emigrated to the United States from Poland and settled in the Baltimore area. Their last name was Janczuk. It was pronounced "YAN-sook" or something close to that (my Polish is limited to about 5 words, and most of them I don't pronounce correctly).
At some point, it occurred to some member of this family that opening a bar would be a great way to make a living.
During Prohibition.
This was clearly not the greatest idea ever voiced by a member of my family, but there you have it.
Needless to say, they were caught, and the bar shut down.
Once Prohibition was over, they thought it would be a great idea to try opening a legal drinking establishment. Unfortunately, the powers that be weren't in the habit of issuing liquor licenses to individuals caught shilling booze when it was illegal.
Funny, that.
So, another brilliant idea occurred to someone or other--we'll just change the spelling of our name!
Unfortunately, whoever had this brilliant idea didn't have a great grasp on American English. Because said person decided that removing the "z," spelling our name "Jancuk" and pronouncing it "JAN-uck" made perfect sense.
So there you have it--the story of my nonsensical name. Now you know how to pronounce it, and also a little about my crazy family.
Happy Throwback Thursday! Na zdrowie!
1 comment :
And so goes the story of the Jancuk last name. The bar only lost it's liquor license for a short time. The food they served - fried hard crabs, chicken noodle soup and kielbasa kept them in business long enough, until the famous name change.
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