'Way out West, they got a name, for wind and rain and fire,
Rain is Tess, fire is Joe, but they call the wind Maria...
Sturm, Ruger & Co. have done a fine job of naming several of mine: Bearcat, Blackhawk, Security Six, Mark II, 10/22, you get the idea.
The others, with the exception of my Yugo 24/47 which gets called the Mauser, are generally called by gauge or caliber.
Another exception exists: my wife and I live far enough south of Reno that when business takes us into town, we usually stay overnight. Activities occurring at a motel on West Fourth Street convinced me that I needed something along, so I started sticking my Charter Undercover (in its brown pistol rug with two filled speedloaders and five loose rounds to keep it company) in my suitcase. Events at a downtown hotel convinced my wife that I was right. Now, when we go someplace to stay, she will often ask me if I have the "Brown Package" along. My reply? "Always."
I frequently name my cars.
Also, I once had a job running an atmospheric furnace melting and pouring lead scrap into ingots. Since the scrap was covered in cutting oil, the furnace frequently caught fire, flames whooshing out every orifice. This caused me to call the furnace, since it was painted in high-temp silver paint, the "Tin Man", because it had no heart and would just flash off any ol' time. Study of the flash points of the chemicals in the cutting oil as opposed to the melting points of the metals involved caused us to reduce the pouring temp by about fifty degrees, and the flashed ceased almost completely...the name, however, remained.
My wife and one of my two cats already had names when they came into my life.
My propensity for nicknaming humans is legendary and almost always apt.
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