Who is Dr. Bonzo, and What is the Boulder Inquisition?
Our faithful reader (hi, Mom!) has asked us what this nonsense about “Doctor Bonzo” and “The Boulder Inquisition” is all about. She wasn’t particularly mollified when our response was, “Heretic! If we told you what it meant we’d have to burn you,” and perhaps you aren’t, either. So, here goes (last updated Dec. 25, 2004):
Who is Dr. Bonzo?
“Dr. Bonzo” is a pseudonym for the owner/operator of this weblog. Dr. Bonzo (the pseudonym) is officially “Dr. Bonzo the Mad, by the grace of God Grand Inquisitor of Boulder.” Does that clarify anything for you?
No, it doesn’t. Where did the ‘nym “Bonzo” come from? Does it have anything to do with the chimpanzee in that old Ronald Reagan movie?
Well, yes it does. For a moderately lengthy period in his (very) lengthy academic career, Dr. Bonzo was wont to announce to his roommates, “Well, I guess it’s Bedtime for Bonzo” upon retiring. The chimp ‘nym stuck.
But what’s the “Boulder Inquisition” part all about?
A large part of Dr. Bonzo’s extensive academic career was spent at the University of Colorado. That’s the University of Colorado that’s in Boulder. Colorado, you know.
Yes, yes, but “Inquisition”?!? Do you really want to associate yourself in any way with that disreputable episode in Western Christian history?
Well, we suppose the appellation “Grand Inquisitor of Boulder” probably arose at some point when we were in school in Boulder. We were in graduate school (round one of two), you see, and being in graduate school tends to make one observably cranky. We have also always been noticeably opinionated and sarcastic, and our friends began to draw parallels between our crankily opinionated sarcasm and the vague general impression one has of such historical figures as, say, Torquemada.
But is there specifically religious content to your opinions, Dr. Bonzo? Is that why you were named Grand Inquisitor of Boulder, rather than, say, Grand Asshole of Boulder?
Yes, there’s a reason for that, too. Round Two of our graduate education yielded (eventually) an M.A. in Religion. At the time that the “Grand Inquisitor” title began to be used, we were on the precipice of plunging into those theological studies, and so our crankily sarcastic opinions tended to have a fairly high quotient of theological reflection.
Now I’m thoroughly confused. Your degree is in Religion, but you spend most of your time (so far) blathering on about graphs and statistics, and you’ve put more posts in your “Geek Talk” category than in “God Talk.” What gives? Are you a geek, too?
It’s true, sir (or madam): Dr. Bonzo is a geek. A web geek, if you must know. And remember how we pointed out a minute ago that the theology degree was round two of graduate school? We weren’t studying theology in Boulder. (Not formally, at least.) We were studying Geek. Not Web Geek (since that hardly existed away back then), but a very nice flavor of Physics Geek. We have the sheepskin and the Officially Defended and Approved Doctoral Dissertation to prove it, too.
So the “Doctor” part is legitimate, at least?
We suppose so. It is, anyway, to the degree that the whole notion of “graduate school” is legitimate.
So, tell us something personal, just between you and me, Dr. Bonzo. Just like Newt’s Mom had that nice, private conversation with Connie Chung.
This is as “personal” as it gets, for right now: Dr. Bonzo is the pseudonym of an ecletic-minded single father of one (girl, 8), who lives and works in River City and tries to balance fatherhood with his overall crankiness, a voracious hunger for books, films and music, his geekly employment, and his spirituality. He abhors long walks in the rain, and enjoys writing about himself in either the third person singular or the first person plural (the “Inquisitorial ‘We’, don’t’cha know?).
What do those categories mean? “Anathema sit!”, “Bonzo I/O,” “Geek Talk,” and “God Talk”?
To re-iterate: Dr. Bonzo “tries to balance fatherhood with his overall crankiness, his voracious hunger for books, films and music, his geekly employment, and his spirituality.”
- The term anathema is explained here. In an Inquisitorial context, it’s a pretty cranky act to declare something to be “anathema,” wouldn’t you agree?
- “I/O,” in the context of our category system, means “Input/Output” rather than “Instant Outliner.” In short, what we’ve been reading/seeing/hearing/producing lately. (But we don’t seem to get around to blogging about it – we mostly seem to keep reading/seeing/hearing/producing, instead.)
- Dr. Bonzo is a geek. Sometimes, he indulges in Geek Talk. ‘Nuff said.
- Dr. Bonzo thinks a lot about God. Sometimes he talks about God, too. Got it?
One last question: What’s your favorite century from the last millenium, Dr. Bonzo?
That would be the sixteenth century. For learning about, anyway. We wouldn’t particularly like to have lived there.