Here's my story, as I explained it on the Newbie 101 #2 pass....
The Garvey handle is one I've used since the early 1990s when I first discovered the beauty of the internet. At the time I was in graduate school at Indiana University and taking my first courses in Early American Public Address. I developed a fascination with the abolitionist movement and, ultimately, the black nationalist movement of the mid-19th and early 20th centuries.
My first major research project focused on Marcus Garvey and his relationship to other African-American leaders like WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington. The project was consuming so much of my time that a group of my friends literally dragged my out of my apartment and took me to a house party at some mutual friends. Well, several shots of tequilla later -- combined with beers and god knows what else -- I was absolutely wrecked. Wrecked to the point of stripping into my boxers and climbing into one of the empty beds upstairs. ohmy.gif All was cool until....
About 60 minutes later I ran down the stairs in only my boxer shorts yelling "Marcus Garvey! Marcus Garvey! Marcus Garvey!" and sat down at a computer and started typing. Now realize, I remember none of this. Apparently I was talking jibberish about some great idea I had for my project and my friends let me type for about 15 minutes before they put me back to bed to sleep it off.
When I awoke late the next morning there was a piece of paper next to my clothes -- a printout of my great idea for my project -- and a handwritten note that said "Hey Garvey, absolutely brilliant!" And on that paper? Random keystrokes that a gorilla could have put together. It took a few hours to recreate the evening -- an evening that I never lived down -- and "Garvey" became a grad school name that stuck.... And I've used it online ever since.
