Chenoweth

I was introduced to a person in my professional space whose last name was Chenoweth. I found the name unusual, not having heard or seen it before. The name sounds somewhat feminine, some name that I would give to a female child who would grow to be a magnificent female. Alas, this person was male, stocky, and entirely not my type when it came to sexual preference. He was also a very competent engineer in the computer science realm. I assumed that he was of Irish heritage, so I was on his side from the beginning. Let me explain this.

Some years prior while I was a budding engineer of electrical and computer science I held a part time job driving a commuter bus for extra earnings. OK, maybe I was not very smart, but it was some extra income that I could use to support my growing family. On one occasion I drove a group of citizens to some theatrical play in a nearby city. While they were viewing the performance I did some studying as I was still between degrees of BS and MS. By the way, “BS” stands for “Bachelor of Science”, not the other thing. During the ongoing performance while I sat in the driver’s seat of my bus a couple of the denizens of the group entered. Apparently they did not care for the fare offered by the theatre, so they decided to spend the last hour in my company. I nodded as they took seats and returned to my textbook on Fluid Dynamics.

The woman was slightly older than I, the man somewhat younger. He made no impression on me. But the woman, well, let’s say, I was more than impressed. I was newly immersed in the English language with an American tutelage, so listening to the woman talking was a new experience. Although I was in love with my wife, I could have gone with this woman anywhere. I correctly guessed her strong accent to be Irish and I loved it. We talked and enjoyed the wait for the rest of the troupe about an hour thence.

Later I read a book by L. Ron Hubbard, “Battlefield Earth”. It was somewhat two-dimensional; nevertheless, I enjoyed it very much. Although set in an American future scenario, by far the best part was the Scottish folk who became a major part of events downstream.

So much for the background, and now back to my erstwhile colleague, Mr. Chenoweth. I love everything Irish, Scottish, and British. I miss the opportunity to have immigrated to England when I ended up in the United States of America instead. I would now be speaking with a British accent otherwise. Now, of course, I know that I was fortunate due to circumstances of my background and have an American accent with a European flavor. Still, I love the various accents the people have from these parts of the world. In all, Scotts are my favorite people. After my encounter with this engineer of exotic name I did some research, and found that the name may be of Cornish origin. Well, Cornish is not exactly common outside of the UK, so most of us would assume Celtic. You know, somewhat like when you hear a Hungarian name and you assume it is Polish: close enough, since they are all alike anyway.

That was the only time I encountered the name Chenoweth. Are there any of you out there who know someone by that name? Let's hear from you.