"Sweet Herb"

I didn't make any New Year's resolutions this year, as I didn't last year either.

Amongst the political rants, bitterness, rancor, obsessing, naming and other sins of commission that we see on the internet, comes along "Wondering." In chastising a person she believes fits one or more of these categories, she referred to me as "Sweet Herb."

I am of mixed emotions. One would, of course like to be thought of in positive terms. The downside is that I have alternately profiled myself as a Curmudgeon, a nasty old man with issues, and of course a Muckraker.

I ask you...Am I to start the New Year trying to fit this new image, or attempt to regain the ground I lost when this person called me "sweet?"

After reading this, and pondering, I picked up the "Today" section of the Spokesman-Review. The featured article was the history of names for babies over the years. Someone asked me, not too long ago, where and how I was named Herb.

I was told by my Mom that there was a comic strip character named Herb, in the 30's.

In an amazing example of prescience, they named me after this comic strip. Go figure.

Now, facing the New Year, I find myself in a dilemma. Curmudgeon or Sweet Herb? Wondering has, without knowing it, picked my New Years resolution. I will try my best to live up to this "sweet" image, kicking and screaming all the way. This will be a stretch for a comic strip character named after a Curmudgeon. Or...Whatever...