What's In A Name?

Poutineq. Pronounced "Poutine Q", or even "Poo-Teen-Kyuu".

What does it mean?

1.) When my brother was in college, some of his drinking budd^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B^B fellow scholars used the term "doughnut". Since a doughnut resembles a zero, it was used to describe things in a negative way. It was also used (lovingly, I assume) for each other.

2.) Also, when these guys were in college, they were big fans of the letter "Q". Why? Well, why not? I'm under the impression that nothing could have made them happier than seeing a business with a huge "Q" on an overhead sign.

3.) At one point, my brother set up an e-mail account for himself named "DoughnutQ". While the account is long deactivated, its legacy lives on in poutineq.

4.) Not too many years thereafter, I first set up an account with a major internet site. I tried various combinations of my first and last names, but these had already all been taken. The site suggested that I add some digits (such as the year or my postal code) after my name, but I wanted an account name with no digits. Getting frustrated, I tried "poutine" as my account name. No dice; it wasn't available. Remembering the old "DoughnutQ" account, I appended a 'Q' after the word "poutine", and the rest is history.

5.) OK, so what is poutine? You could try looking in the dictionary(.com), but it isn't there. To quote one site on the web, "Poutine is a French-Canadian concoction comprised of french fries, gravy, and cheese curds." I don't claim to be an expert on the subject, but I would say "fried potatoes" rather than "french fries", and I'll point out that poutine can be found all over Canada. I hear it's good for the heart and circulatory system.

So there you have it!