How do you
pronounce my last name? Yes, you, the reader, the comrade sharing this line.
If you pronounce
the first syllable to rhyme with ‘wine’ and the second syllable to room with
‘zoo,’ you’re agreeing with nearly all English speakers. Well, American-speakers, at least.
If you pronounce
the first syllable to rhyme with ‘rain’ and the second syllable to rhyme with
‘bow,’ you’re either Estonian (or maybe Finnish or Dutch), a member of my
circle of family or friends with a good ear for language, or someone who has
had me correct you two or three times already.
My wife Lisa (not a
Heinsoo, by the way, she has a very cool name of her own that’s marginally
easier to pronounce) advises me to give it up, and just let people pronounce my
name the way they’re going to read it, because come on, who am I kidding? She’s
probably right. When Shane Ivey of Arc Dream asked me last week about the
pronunciation of my name for the upcoming Wrestlenomicon Kickstarter
video, I could have let the original wine-zoo pronunciation roll. Because
really, I don’t care if people say my name wrong.
I just can’t bring myself to
ignore our Estonian selves, not when I say my own name, or when someone asks. Who would I be if
I’d grown up with a name that other people could pronounce properly? Maybe less
of an unusual person, I say, being polite.. I suspect I wouldn’t be me, not in
some odd ways that matter.
So it’s OK if you
pronounce the name of my company to rhyme with Rob Wine-Zoo Games. I don’t
mind, I expect it. But if you hear me talking, I’ll continue to rhyme my name
with rainbow. And in honor of that pronunciation, here are four beautiful
color treatments Lee Moyer (rhyme scheme starts with Wheee!) created of the
logo for the new company, and two black and white versions like the one that appears on the cover of 13th Age Glorantha.
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