Originally Posted by
Otis
We had a Lab mix years ago I had named Desmo. People really struggled with the name and she became Desi after a couple of years just to cut down on the explanations. But Desmo Dogs are good dogs.....
My wife has called him Desi from the beginning, she likes to think he's named after Desi Arness but he's not!
His name when we got him was "Lucky" but we changed it. My neighbor (probably 15 years my senior) was asking about his name. I explained it, and then added his name was Lucky when we got him but I just couldn't have a dog named Lucky. He then told me his first dog's name was Lucky. Oops... I wanted to say "yeah, but you were what, 8 years old?" but didn't want to risk burying myself deeper.
Ducati lore has it that the term "desmo" is roughly translated as "controlled". In younger days he would fall into what later became known as "Desi Storms" where he might do something like run laps around the inside of the house like a crazy dog, using the couch as a banked turn. So it was like naming a Great Dane "Tiny". In 14 years of having him around, only one person caught on to the irony of his name.
Once once people see my garage/basement, they understand the name. For a long time I had seven Ducatis sitting around in various states of usefullness.
For those who are completely lost, Ducati is a brand of motorcycle. They are known for using desmodromic valvetrains, as in no valve springs. Hence the engine in a modern Ducati is often refered to as a Desmo. I am/was a pretty rabid Ducati fan for many years. It only made sense to name my dog Desmo.
Finally a couple pictures to illustrate things. Forgive my rambling here, Desmo has had a rough couple of days and I'm feeling sentimental.
A pic of Desmo next to a desmo.
Earlier bikes (from when my infatuation with them was born) were labeled as Desmos. And now everyone knows more than they ever wanted to about where Desmos name, and then my user name, came from.
EDIT: That picture is smaller than I thought. The point was supposed to be that it says "DESMO" on the fairing near the front there. And I can't leave Sophia out (name inspired by Sophia Loren BTW) so here's a little video I out together a couple days after she died.
http://www.teamyikes.com/sophia/SophiaVid.mov
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