Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Sully Sullenberger - the hero with the suspiciously catchy name

I've been thinking a lot about Sully Sullenberger lately. Cause for concern? Not hardly. The guy has such a punchy name I just can't get him out my head. But you have to wonder, would this man still be making headlines (or randomly showing up in my dreams) if he didn't have such a memorable moniker?

Brief history lesson (not that you need one): Sully Sullenberger is the dude who safely landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson river after a flock of birds disabled both engines. His crazy mad flying skills saved the lives of 155 passengers.

Yeah, it would have been an impressive feat even if his name wasn't Sully Sullenberger. But let's be real. There's no way we'd still be talking about this guy if his name was, say, Ted Reynolds. In fact, we would've forgotten all about him within 30 minutes of his heroic touchdown. Seriously, that's a fact.

All I'm saying is, if you're considering having kids, please give the child a super catchy name. You'll increase your chances of someday meeting Oprah tenfold.

And now I'd like to leave you with some of my favorite images of Sully Sullenberger enjoying his much-deserved hero status.

Hangin' with Oprah!

Gracing the cover of People!

Dubbed "The Last Aviator"!

Tossing out the first pitch at a Yankees game!

Peddling his own book!

Always keeping a fresh-faced philly on each arm!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I wonder if when he was in grade school the other kids called him Smelly Sullenberger.

Unknown said...

this post reminds me of a story on npr http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123020391
Children of Men (2006) "A terrific movie with a terrible title"