You have all noticed that I use the nickname Deathgrip or sometimes just 'Grip. That is a cool moniker, even if I do say so myself. And it's not one I made up myself. But would you believe that in a round about way, the nickname comes from the 80s TV show, "Taxi"?
Nicknames never really stuck to me, and over the years people have called me Butch, Sponge, and a few others. Perhaps I should elaborate on the Sponge nickname in a future post, it's also not quite what you would first suspect. But back to Deathgrip. Before I moved to the west coast from Long Island NY, I met some of the people out here through motorcycle related email lists. This was before today's social media like Facebook and MySpace, and even predates things like Yahoo Groups. Being somewhat "vertically challenged" and coming from the Greater NY area, some of guys here (and in particular Craig "Wildman" Dewart 12/04/49 - 8/13/06) would call me either "Danny", "DeVito", "Louie", or "DePalma". Obviously in reference to the actor Danny DeVito and the character Louie DePalma he portrayed on the TV show "Taxi". For about a year or so, any of those were used. Somewhere down the road, I think it was my bud Scott that took poetic license and combined "DePalma" and "DeVito". But changed a loose translation of "hand" and "life" into Deathgrip. A new nickname was born, and at least for my group of riding buddies here on the west coast, has seemed to have stuck.
With that, my dryer buzzed and I guess it's time for some domestic tasks. Then relax with a nice cold Dos Equis Ambar.
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