Me and Jimmy Durante

Once upon a time I got asked how I came by my pen name, Cyranos DeMet.  I've discovered that quite by accident my pen name is unique, it appears I'm the only one.  Just luck, that was.  Anyhow, my formal pen name is Cyranos DeMet, for a long time it was the only name I was  known by on the internet.  It is an evolved name, actually, and the story of how it came to be revolves, as do several others, around my muse Alex.

I met Alex when she was working as an erotic model hosting a chat room sponsored by a skin site on the web.  Yes, one of those, two hundred thousand acres of well polished and fairly well photographed female skin, complimented by several hours a day of live shows sponsored by the company where a few of the ladies entertained live, sometimes in the buff, other times not, but always their art the art of the erotic persona to give the patrons an archetype of personality to attach to the pictures.  A most interesting and subtle art, actually, getting to see it from the third person as it were.  But I digress.

When I first signed up for the place I needed a user name for a log in of course, and in the mood of the moment picked "nostalgic,"  which is what I was.  It was a terrible time in my life, one of the hardest, and I was very much missing the good old days. At that point I'd never seen a cam show before, had no clue what they were about.  

As a matter of fact it was over a month before I even checked one out from total bored curiosity (you can only look at still pictures for just so long before they go flat, no matter how perfectly curved and inviting the lass in the pictures might be).  I had no idea my user name would become my chat handle.  Make it the third or fourth time I logged in on a show at random I got bold, and complimented the sweetheart on the screen.  She (ever alert for a new name and a chance at a lucrative private show)  thanked me for the compliment.  To identify who among her many viewers the thank you was for she addressed me according to the convention of the place with an abbreviation of my handle.  She called me 'nos.' 

At that point she paused, and utterly destroyed the idea she was pre-recorded with an expression going across her face that if it was an act (I don't think it was, but if it was) should put her up for an academy award.  You see, I later learned that in Russian 'nos' is short for nosik, nose  (and among the girls who knows what else), and she was suddenly worried she'd offered insult by accident.  It was classic sweetheart next door, it was: worried oops face fading off into funny face hopeful, and her meaning was perfectly clear.  Oh well, he's new, if he doesn't know what it means his feelings won't be hurt and I still have a chance.  Of course I fell in love with her right then, in point of fact I still carry a love for her even now years after she retired to raise her family. 

In time I decided nostalgic was a bit of a wet blanket to have for a chat handle, and changed my user name, migrating through several variations but always where the convention would generate nos as part of the game with she who had become my muse.  The lass who could be a lady at will taught me I have poetry in me, I took to speaking in iambic pentameter in the chats, tossing off quick rhymes the girls inspired with their acting.

*chuckle* In sonnets you count lines, in haiku and tanka you count syllables, in chat you count characters.

Of course, this caused me to take some guff from the other guys who weren't at all interested in poetry.  After about the third or fourth time I got called down for it I, recalling the legendary French swordsman Cyrano deBergerac, said I'd paid my nickel to sit in on the shows just like they had, and that I'd have poetry where I pleased at the point of a blade if need be, and changed my nick to Cyranos.  Well, if he was Cyrano of Bergerac, a town in France, then if I were to generate a surname the only real choice was to follow in suit, and so I became Cyranos of Met, which if you were interested would lead you back to the skin site where the whole story went down. 

Sadly, those shows are gone now, if you go there what you'll find is just what you'd expect. But a truly unique pen name is a rare gift, and the lady who started it all is still one of my favorite humans on planet Earth, and so Cyranos I shall be in memory of those enchanting fascinating and truly marvelous hours of delight she provided her boys (and more than a few girls) while working in a cause we discovered we had shared in common for much longer than we'd known each other: trying to show the world the difference between a love of the heart and the expressions of that love when it takes the form of sex and sexuality.  

So, a toast: Here's to Lady Alexa, sweet Alex, the one and only: cheers!