I got to hang out with a visiting GG (class of ’95) at Honey’s last night. We reminisced about Psi U, and I lamented that I lack a good answer whenever someone asks me why I’m known as Toastie. If I tell the story honestly, there is no story. The guys who came up with the name forgot how they arrived at it; no one wrote it down. This often leads the person who asked to say, “I guess you used to get a little toasty!” to which I respond with a look of indignation.

Well, GG may have finally given me the answer I’ve been seeking for 14 years:

I think your big brother just said, “Let’s call him Toastie!” and that was it.

Maybe it would make life easier to just make something up. Yeah. The guys were making fun of me for having a sandwich-maker back in my dorm room. They thought “Grilled Cheese” was an awful name, so they called me “Toastie”. Yeah (channeling the late Jon Lovitz), that’s the ticket.

And, yes, I’m aware that Jon Lovitz is still alive, but the idea of channeling a dead Jon Lovitz is more amusing to me than quoting the alive but aging and irrelevant Jon Lovitz.