Yo! And Hey Man!
April 30, 2009 
15 Comments
Did you ever wake up all “out of sorts?” I did this morning.
What is up with hotel beds? Can they be any more torturous?
I mean, you look forward to vacations more than anything, but yet when you come back you feel as stiff as the concrete in New York City. Do you think the people who work in hotels ever actually sleep in them?
So after I returned from New York, I had to go to the chiropractor for some snap, crackle and pop . . . which also makes no sense to me. If my body was out of place before I went there, how does it know when it’s in place? You guys can help me figure that out.
Now onto today’s topic.
So many of you have trouble remembering names, so when you start talking to someone you spend the whole time trying to remember their name instead of actually listening to what the person is saying.
The solution to this ongoing difficulty remembering names is often to refer to almost everyone as either “Yo” or “Hey Man.” The way this works is that when you see someone you know, but can’t remember their name, you can just refer to them as “Yo” or Hey Man.”
For instance, you see one of these people in a coffee shop. Even though you couldn’t remember that person’s name if your life depended on it, you can walk right up to them and say “Hey man! How have you been?”
Maybe you’re just walking down the street and you see someone you know but whose name is totally unknown to you. You can call out to them by saying “Yo!” Inevitably, that person (and probably five or six other people in their vicinity) will turn around.
Almost everyone responds to “Yo!” or “Hey Man!” You probably do too. So virtually everyone is “Yo” or “Hey Man.” So when you see another “Yo” or “Hey Man” the conversation will go something like this:
David: “Yo, what’s up?”
Yo: “Hey Man, good to see you!”
It’s true. Think about it. Whenever someone yells “Yo,” you turn around every time.
It’s just like in a relationship how all women are “Baby” or “Honey.” So you can go anywhere and call out “Honey!” and every woman will turn around.
So technically you can be at a party and have everyone introduce each other without ever knowing anyone’s name. “Hey Man, this is Honey.” Then she can say “Yo, it’s nice to meet you!”
Of course, this whole thing doesn’t really translate well to a woman to woman interaction. I mean, what are the women’s equivalents of “Yo” and “Hey Man?” “Hey Sweetie?” “Hey Woman?” Really, unless one of the women is wearing a wifebeater with beer and mustard stains on it, I don’t think calling out “Hey Woman!” is going to really work very well.
So as you can see, although “Yo” and “Hey Man” seem to solve the whole name remembering problem, there are still some complications. How do you tell the 400 “Yo’s” and the 300 “Hey Man’s” apart in your BlackBerry directory? I guess you could try to write something distinguishing about them in the “company” line of their contact page, but what do you do when one of them calls?
You must be VERY good at voice recognition to be able to know which “Hey Man” is calling. At least you know you can answer the phone “Hey Man, How are ya?” (at least until you figure out which one is on the phone).
Actually some of my best friends are named “Hey Man,” and I have a lot of “Yo’s” in my life. The great thing is that I have only one “Baby” . . . unless there’s some I don’t know about.
This is SO funny …. and so true!
I didn’t stop laughing from beginning to the end of reading this — thanks David!
Also…hotel beds are the worst!
Hey Man, great blog today!
David,
I think too much laughing and running away from Mr. Threesome might have put your body over the edge.
I personally fell a bit “violated” when I get a Chiropractor. I have mentioned him before but Blue Dunn, who has trained people in San Diego, does a Hands-on Myofascial Release that is amazing. He has this Flextasy program and just by telling him which poses that was a problem with you, he can tell you were in your body you need work. If you ever are down there, sometimes he goes back to San Diego too, he is worth it.
I am terrible with names, and being on Facebook I have these old classmates messaging me and I feel like a fool as I really don’t remember them. It’s really embarasing, as they have no problem remembering me.
Do any one have any creative ideas how you can get someone name if you have forgotten it, without hurting them.
I have a husband and wife neighbor couple right next door and I see them once or twice a week. We are all pretty friendly, but I always forget his wife’s name. I can remember the husband, (it’s John, nice and easy). But for some reason, I can never remember hers and I know I’ve heard it quite often. I even asked John one time what his wife’s name was, he told me, and I still don’t remember it. Pretty funny. I can remember almost every detail I learned about her but her name.
Hey Mike…
Maybe you should tease her and call her “Hi John’s wife! how are you?”
You can make a joke out of it… and maybe she’ll tell you her name again in passing!
That’s a good idea except the times when you’ve been doing it for too long and get caught not knowing the person’s name. lol, I once talked to some guy from class for 3 months calling him “man” and “bro” until one day he called me out on not knowing his name.
Ha! Everyone forgets people’s names. Personally I’ve stopped feeling embarrassed about it; if I can’t remember someone’s name I’ll just ask in a polite and friendly way; more than half the time I discover that the other person doesn’t remember mine either so it takes the pressure off.
I just tell everybody I have a “Swiss Cheese” Brain, a whole lot of holes, but inbetween some goodies. If it is professional though, I try to remember the name by adding mentally an image to it. One lady I knew, her name is Jane, of course I forgot it all the time until I met her husband. Boy what a Neanderthal. So I put one and one together and called her Jane & Tarzan – I just have to be careful now not calling him that.
I work in a company where everyone has to wear a photo id badge at all times and I still can’t remember both the name AND the face. Me, remember both? Fat chance…but everyone remembers me! Try THAT for humiliating on a regular basis. The folks in my building are very friendly so everyone including managers are constantly saying “hi” as they pass you or stand in the cafeteria line – none of that childish ignoring you crap, so it’s easy to get by. But occasionally we get to cheat by glancing at their badge for a name and vice versa…so I hold mine up if they do look for it.
As for woman to woman: many of us DO address each other by a number of casual nicknames or endearments but nothing that any sane man would use starting with Hey or Yo, woman, chickie, chickster, girlie, girlfriend, mama, little girl, etc. It’s used in the elevators, in the parking lot, across the floor when you catch sight of someone walking at a distance to get their attention – and no, we really do NOT yell out names – even when we DO know each others’ names! Go figure.
I use “Hey man” or “wat up, bro” all the time. With girls i like to say “Hey you” or “Hey lady”
As Khiem knows, I sometimes forget a girl’s name – and that’s generally not good when I’m asking for a phone number
Hehehe.
If I happen to forget a girl’s name (I generally have no trouble asking a guy for his name again because guys don’t really seem to take offense/I don’t care if I’m mildly offending a guy I’ll probably never see again)…. actually, you know what– I don’t really have a problem asking a girl for her name again either.
If I do happen to be self-conscious about name asking, for whatever reason, I resort to one of two stealth-like tricks:
1) I challenge the girl to prove to me that she’s AT LEAST 18 years old. I ask to see some photo ID like I’m a bouncer. Then I make fun of her for not being an organ donor when I am. Or if she’s from out of state, I ask if she’s updated her license, then if she hasn’t, I call her a criminal and become insanely curious to visually compare her Wisconsin/Montana/Delaware license with my California one…We can even have a mini contest and get into how we rate the graphics. (And sometimes even throw in “I’ll show you mine, if you show me yours…” but in a FUNNY, NON-SKETCHY way — as though I’m not putting any emphasis on the line). And if she has a particularly goofy photo, I tease her about that too. (“How sauced were you when they took this photo? No, really – you can tell me. I won’t tell anyone!”) Usually, she’s laughing so hard she has no idea my brain has failed me on her name.
2) Much simpler: I introduce her to someone else saying “have you met my friend?” This one has saved me COUNTLESS times from embarrassments.
But it helps to repeat a person’s name three times to yourself when you meet them. Then you won’t have to resort to these tricks.
LOL Noah! I won’t save you next time if you forget her name. You never emailed her, did you?
I just did….. like 5 mins ago
Except, I forgot her name again so it took me like 4 mins to find it in my phone
Hm i already see myself translating these greetings into all the different languages!
That might be fun!!
Well, David, what kind of bed was it? Too firm or too soft? I prefer the firm beds because it’s more supportive on your back. But if the bed is different from your normal one, then your back is not used to it and will probably start hurting.
Or was your back hurting from all the boinking you were doing?