A Spiritual Boost
A relative of mine went to see a psychic. The psychic asked “who’s Jack?”. So my relative explained the connection between us, and then the psychic told her that she had the ghost of a little boy in her house, called Joe, who really liked me because I’m funny and entertaining.
Now I’m not convinced that ‘ghosts’ or ’spirits’ actually exist. But equally, I’m not convinced that they don’t. And indeed my wife was woken up one night when staying in that house by the noise of a boy screaming, only to find everyone else in the house still fast asleep and rather blasé about it later, saying “oh yes, the ghost doesn’t like strangers sleeping in that room”.
On the plus side, it’s always nice to get positive feedback, even in this case if it is via a rather indirect route from someone I’m not convinced actually exists in the first place. So, um, cheers Joe, if you exist…
Hello. I am 
Whoooo!
Not to suggest that you’re not funny and entertaining…that would be ridiculous…as well as rude….but…
The most popular names for baby boys in 2006
1 Jack 6,928, 2 Muhammad (all spellings) 5,991, 3 Thomas 5,921, 4 Joshua 5,808, 5 Oliver 5,208, 6 Harry 5,006, 7 James 4,783, 8 William 4,327, 9 Samuel 4,320, 10 Daniel 4,303, 11 Charlie 4,178, 12 Benjamin 3,778, 13 Joseph 3,755, 14 Callum 3,517, 15 George 3,386, 16 Jake 3,353, 17 Alfie 3,194, 18 Luke 3,108,19 Matthew 3,043, 20 Ethan 3,020
Source: Office for National Statistics/ The Times
I think Jack has come in near the top for decades. Which begs the question of whether had your relative been asian, would she have asked after someone called Mohammed?
Jack has been near the top since about 1995, I think. At least, I’m sure it got to the top when I was at college (and yes, it has been there ever since). But I’ve always worked on the assumption that after I’d worn the name for 20 years or so, everyone began to see it as really cool and they wanted to name their kids after me.
So yes, it would be easy enough to pull my name out of the aether; but the other name specifically mentioned hasn’t been in the top 100 in any of the last 5 years (according to the office of national statistics).
Mind you, I’m not saying I believe in it either; I like to see things for myself rather than relying on what someone tells me. And besides, I recognise “Joe’s” email address and website