am i the only one who didn't know that henry louis gates, jr. is also called skip gates? all of a sudden, everyone is calling him "skip" (e.g.) as if he's a buddy of theirs. i even heard it on NPR today while driving through the wilds of south jersey.
it reminds me of when i first went to wiscon and everyone was calling samuel delaney "chip delaney" or sometimes just "chip". to me it just came across as an effort to create a false sense of familiarity with someone famous.
