The Old Coot has a new nickname. Maybe? Published in NY on 5/7/25

 The Old Coot tries out a new moniker.

By Merlin Lessler  

I have a new nickname, “Moses.” I was first dubbed with that moniker by my friend, Ray Miller, from Chicago. He fished from the shore on the east coast of Florida. I did it too. Ray is a real fisherman; I’m an imposter. He caught enough Pompano and Whiting, and one time, a shark, to freeze and take home at the end of the snowbird season.

He fished; I walked the beach, one or two miles to the north or south. I moseyed along, with a tall walking stick. He said I looked like Moses coming down the beach, with my hair flying in the wind, a beard, and my stick. I liked it.

Then another guy, in an inland neighborhood I walked through, started calling me Moses too. I liked it even more. Two unrelated opinions. I’m thinking of adopting it as a nickname. I’ve had many over my lifetime. With a name like Merlin, you like being called something different. I started out as a little kid with “Butch” and also “Buckeroo,” which my father called me when he gave me a horseyback ride, or to be precise, “My Little Buckaroo.” I usually wore a cowboy suit and sported two cap pistols. I galloped on my rocking horse, chasing the bad guys.  Everyone in the neighborhood called me Butch. When I started kindergarten, Mrs. Shopper called out our names from her attendance sheet. When she yelled out, “Merlin,” I didn’t raise my hand; I didn’t realize she was talking to me.

Eventually, Butch faded away. And, I collected other nicknames: Les, Merl, Nick (I gave myself that one when I was eleven), Knurling (I got that in machine shop because I put a knurling grip using a lathe on all my projects). When I had a paper route and went door to door to collect the 45 cent weekly fee, I was called, “That kid who delivers our paper is at the door.” The customers who referred to me that way, made me come back two or three times before they coughed up the dough, handing me a half-dollar and never saying, “Keep the change, Kid.”

When I started writing my Old Coot articles in 2002, it became what I thought was my last nickname, “Old Coot” or just plain,  ”Coot.” I’m fine with that, but the more I think about it, the more I like Moses. I think I just might give it a test run.

Definitions: - #1 “Dubbed” – an unofficial name or nickname given to someone or something.

#2 “Moniker”- a nickname or pet name for a person.