Rev. Kit Ketcham Is To Be Confused With Rev. Kit Ketchum Since They Are One And The Same Person

It seems that I am guilty of misspelling Rev. Kit Ketcham's family name in a good number of TEA blog posts. Several older TEA blog posts refer to Rev. Kit Ketcham as Rev. Kit Ketchum. I have actually been aware of this spelling error for some time now, but I wasn't overly concerned about it since other people have made exactly the same spelling mistake, including a number of U*U churches as a free and (ir)responsible Google search for Rev. Kit Ketchum will show. In fact a number of people have visited at this blog after running Google searches for Rev. Kit Ketchum. I often leave typographical errors and spelling mistakes uncorrected if I feel that the typo or spelling error in question may lead to additional people visiting this blog as a result of running Google searches with the same spelling error or typo, and this is certainly the case when it comes to *that* particular "typo".

This matter came to my attention again just now as a result of someone, quite possibly Rev. Kit Ketcham herself, searching this blog for the word/name Ketchum. After freely and responsibly considering correcting this spelling error in older TEA blog posts I have decided not to do so due in no small measure to the fact that this is a "memory hole" free blog, although that TEA blog policy does not mean that I cannot correct spelling errors and typos if there is some compelling reason to do so. I just do not feel that there is a compelling reason to do so in this case. Although Ms. Kitty and I have had one or two comparatively minor catfights in the past, being cat people and all, I actually enjoy "right relations", even friendly relations, with Rev. Kit Ketcham these days, heck I am pretty sure I enjoyed those catfights too. . . :-) so I will simply ask her to accept my apologies for spelling her family name wrong in the past and will make a New Year's resolution here and now to try to avoid spelling her family name wrong in the future, especially since any blogging I do about Rev. Ketcham in the future is rather more likely to be bestowing some praise than meting out harsh criticism.

After all Rev. Kit Ketcham is one of the very few U*U ministers (albeit not the only one. . .) who has had the moral courage, and just plain human decency, to publicly acknowledge that she has been "less than right" in her human relations with me and has taken steps to correct her "less than excellent" behavior towards me. It was a quite minor case of participating in another U*U blogger's attempt to bait me online that really did not bother me all that much, but the simple fact that Rev. Kit Ketcham completely voluntarily and U*Unilaterally changed her mind about baiting me and even publicly acknowledged her error in a blog post, without me asking her to do anything of the sort, favorably impressed me and, over the interceding months, I think that she has come to understand that The Emerson Avenger is something of a Wizard of Oz "persona" as my The Wonderful Wizard of U*Us blog somewhat subtly hints at.

So I wish a Happy New Year to Rev. Kit Ketcham and indeed all those other U*U ministers who enjoy "reasonably good relations" if not "right relations" with The Emerson Avenger. I can think of several just off the top of my head, and could probably think of a dozen or more if I set my mind to it. If I ever get around to handing out U*U Heroes and Zeroes Awards Rev. Kit Ketcham is likely to be in the former category rather than the latter "less than flattering" one.

Having said all that I can't help but wonder if Rev. Kit Ketcham is related to the cartoonist Hank Ketcham, the creator of my very good friend 'Dennis The Menace'. I think that the U*U Jihad Air Force may just have to invest in an F-86D for Dennis Sabre fighter jet. :-)

Comments

Lilylou said…
Thanks, Robin, for your kind words. It was indeed I who searched for the misspelled name, just feeling curious about whether or not you'd ever mentioned me in your blog and having noticed that you used two different spellings. I enjoy our friendship and am glad we are in right relationship, having gotten past some of our former differences. As you said, almost everyone does misspell my surname. And I'm not related to Hank Ketcham, unless it's really way back in history, though we have discovered a genealogical link to the New Mexican outlaw BlackJack Ketchum. All the spellings of Ketcham (-am, -um, -em) are legit and we are probably all related somewhere along the line. There is another Kit Ketchum, in MN, with whom I carry on an occasional email connection. She is also a UU though not a minister.
Robin Edgar said…
You're welcome for the kind words Kit. I figured that it was probably you but wasn't 100% sure. As per what you wrote here and other evidence it does seem that Ketchum and Ketcham are more or less interchangeable spelling variants of your family name. I expect that you can blame Heinz Ketchup et al for people often (mis)spelling Ketcham as Ketchum.

I just Googled BlackJack Ketchum and discovered that he was quiet the character and a *real* menace to society who quite literally lost his head in the end. I can see why a 20th century Ketchum might actually want to tweak the spelling of their family name to distance themselves from a not so distant relative of "less than excellent" reputation. So I guess I kind of had it right all along. . . ;-)

Happy New Year to you and the cats,

Robin Edgar aka The Emerson CatFighter

P.S. I think I did enjoy our little catfights in the past but, on the whole, it is much nicer to in "right relation" and even friends.
Lilylou said…
Actually, I kind of like being related to BlackJack; it helps dispel the "goody-goody" preacher's kid aura. But, poor guy, to lose his head so ignominiously!
Robin Edgar said…
Well it least he didn't have to live with the embarrassment of losing his head after he lost it. . . but that *is* an interesting story. It seems that he is the only person in U.S. history to have lost his head that way.
Joel said…
I know I found this a little late, but just to set it straight, Kit's (and by extension, my) spelling of KetchAM is the original. The alternate spelling "UM" crops up several generations down the road. Probably it developed more than one time as literacy was sometimes shaky and spellings tended to be creative in the 17th and 18th centuries.

All three spellings derive rom a single ancestor, so we're related to Hank the Cartoonist one way or another. I've been meaning to find time to look into the connection further.
Robin Edgar said…
Thanks for that updated information Joel.