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thebes11 · 07-18-2008, 02:06 PM

Mine is actually pretty dumb, and comes from a drunken Tuesday afternoon my freshman year in college. It was a simpler time, when the air was clean, the colors were bright and people were just friendlier. It was 1986.

The big bad bully AT&T was being broken up and there was a small upstart company called MCI causing a stir in St. Louis. They were marketing the hell out of the company in Missouri, and it just so happened that my best friend from the corridor was from there.

So there we were, a couple of idiot 18 year olds, drunk as hell at 3:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday. I look across and ask him, "What the hell is thebes?" He looks at me, with a stupid look on his face (that happened a lot in those days) and wondered what in the world I was talking about. "Thebes, what the hell is thebes? It's right there on your sweatshirt!" I responded. He looked down, pulled the front of his shirt taught to reveal the whole front:

MCI
The Best

Well, this guy wound up being one of my best friends ever (and still is to this day) and because of him, the nickname stuck until I moved to Dayton. I added the 11 because Thebes was taken on almost every board I tried to join (I learned later in college it is also the name of ancient cities in both Egypt and Greece). 11 is my favorite number from when I was a kid. I was always the smallest kid by far on any sports team I'd join. My dad always though the number 1 looked "cute" on my back. I hated it, it was a reminder of how small I was. We compromised on 11. Problem is, when writing it, I never know which 1 to put first!

07-18-2008, 02:06 PM	#13 (permalink)
thebes11 Scubabanana thebes11's Photo Gallery Location: Atlantic Beach, FL Find me on the map! Zone: 9 Name: Gary Join Date: Jul 2008 Posts: 86 BananaBucks : 19,186 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 15 Times Was Thanked 55 Times in 11 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 1 Times	Re: Explain your screen name. Mine is actually pretty dumb, and comes from a drunken Tuesday afternoon my freshman year in college. It was a simpler time, when the air was clean, the colors were bright and people were just friendlier. It was 1986. The big bad bully AT&T was being broken up and there was a small upstart company called MCI causing a stir in St. Louis. They were marketing the hell out of the company in Missouri, and it just so happened that my best friend from the corridor was from there. So there we were, a couple of idiot 18 year olds, drunk as hell at 3:00 in the afternoon on Tuesday. I look across and ask him, "What the hell is thebes?" He looks at me, with a stupid look on his face (that happened a lot in those days) and wondered what in the world I was talking about. "Thebes, what the hell is thebes? It's right there on your sweatshirt!" I responded. He looked down, pulled the front of his shirt taught to reveal the whole front: MCI The Best Well, this guy wound up being one of my best friends ever (and still is to this day) and because of him, the nickname stuck until I moved to Dayton. I added the 11 because Thebes was taken on almost every board I tried to join (I learned later in college it is also the name of ancient cities in both Egypt and Greece). 11 is my favorite number from when I was a kid. I was always the smallest kid by far on any sports team I'd join. My dad always though the number 1 looked "cute" on my back. I hated it, it was a reminder of how small I was. We compromised on 11. Problem is, when writing it, I never know which 1 to put first!