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Family's winner becomes a loser and loser a winner
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| gehzumteufel |
| quote: | Family's winner becomes a loser and loser a winner
August 1 2002
The name of the game is not always what it seems to be, Sean Gardiner writes from New York.
One son was named Loser, the other Winner.
One became a policeman and was eventually promoted to detective.
The other fell into the life of a small-time crook, racking up at least 31 arrests before being jailed for two years.
But for the brothers Lane it was not a case of their unique names sealing their fates. "I went a totally separate route right from the start," said Loser Lane, 41, a detective in the South Bronx.
Loser, a star student and athlete, went on scholarship to an elite prep school, on to Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and then joined the force.
Winner's life has gone the other way. Now 44, Winner last month completed a two-year jail sentence for breaking into a car. He is living in a homeless shelter in upstate New York, shuttling back and forth between it and the city trying to get his life on track.
Why did he commit so many crimes? "It's just some situations I got in," Winner said.
Loser said of his brother: "Most of the crimes are minor crimes. He's just kooky, not a heavy drinker, some domestic violence problems, but was never a heavy drinker, never into drugs ... He's just not all there, I think."
The brothers rarely see each other, though Winner will phone Loser when he is short of money, but they are no longer close. "I'm a cop," said Loser, who is known as Lou on the job. "And I have a way with me, I don't tolerate a lot."
The Lane boys ran in the same circles while growing up in public housing in Harlem, where their names never seemed to arouse curiosity or ridicule from the neighbourhood kids.
"When you're young you don't know that it's a bad name, and by the time you hit grade school, everybody knows you. It was a regular thing," Loser Lane said.
It helped that Loser was the youngest of eight brothers and sisters and that he was a natural athlete, admired by the other kids for his on-field achievements.
The story of how Loser got his name is simple. The day he was born, their late father, Robert, asked his daughter what to name the baby. "My dad comes home and asks my oldest sister what to name me and she said, 'Well, we've got a Winner, why don't we have a Loser?' And there you go."
While Loser's friends had no problem calling him by his name, his teachers and other adults "couldn't bring themselves to call me Loser", so he became Lou. |
source and yes i am well aware that it was published in 2002 originally. |
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| RJT |
| Birth certificates and proof of names or STFU. |
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| bas |
| quote: | The Lane boys ran in the same circles while growing up in public housing in Harlem, where their names never seemed to arouse curiosity or ridicule from the neighbourhood kids.
"When you're young you don't know that it's a bad name, and by the time you hit grade school, everybody knows you. It was a regular thing," Loser Lane said.
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That's how you know the story is fake. |
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| gehzumteufel |
| quote: | Originally posted by RJT
Birth certificates and proof of names or STFU. |
i used to work for a cable company and there is this customer. his name is "Obi Wan Kenobi"...we didnt believe him so before we let him get service we forced him to come in with a proof. his drivers license said "Obi Wan Kenobi". it was really hard to call his place to tell him that he had a past due balance. we would laugh wayy too hard to even call. |
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| lücid |
| quote: | Originally posted by gehzumteufel
i used to work for a cable company and there is this customer. his name is "Obi Wan Kenobi"...we didnt believe him so before we let him get service we forced him to come in with a proof. his drivers license said "Obi Wan Kenobi". it was really hard to call his place to tell him that he had a past due balance. we would laugh wayy too hard to even call. |
:stongue:
that's too awesome. |
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| bas |
Operator: "Mister Kenobi your bill is over due."
Obi-Wan: "My bill isn't over due...these aren't the droids you're looking for."
Operator: "...no really...pay us." |
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| gehzumteufel |
haha so you think we would make fun of it! that's why it was so hard to ever call him!
| quote: | Originally posted by lücid
:stongue:
that's too awesome. |
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| gehzumteufel |
| quote: | Originally posted by bas
Operator: "Mister Kenobi your bill is over due."
Obi-Wan: "My bill isn't over due...these aren't the droids you're looking for."
Operator: "...no really...pay us." |
the first time I saw this guys name I was doing the calls and I never ended up calling him. I always was laughing to hard to finish letting it ring. |
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| leph555 |
| I know some Asian kid name Huye Ve Chai. Which means Dick in Tea |
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