What's With the Cheshire Cat Nickname/Handle?

Welcome...

As you may know, the Cheshire Cat is a character in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. The cat is surreal and mad, a fact which he readily admits. ("We're all mad here," he says.) He is also remembered for fading from view before Alice's eyes. When Alice complained, he proceeded to fade more slowly, leaving his big grin for last. (It has been speculated that this phenomenon came from Carroll's migraine headaches.)

Why do I use the name? Mostly, it's a sense of connection with the character. For example, he's a little bit crazy, but in that playfully harmless way. He's also surreal, a characteristic I strive to bring into my world at every opportunity. I'm somewhat known for smiling a lot, frequently with a disturbingly broad grin. More than one person has compared my grin to the Cheshire Cat's, even when the speaker didn't know of my nickname. And I've always had a bit of a cat (in the general sense) personality to begin with.

Additionally, I feel a sort of (admittedly, weak) connection with Charles Ludwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll's real name). He was a mathematician, and a good one at that. I have to appreciate that. His works include an alternate method of finding determinates and a dialogue between Achilles and the Tortoise (from Zeno's paradox), the idea of which was later used by Douglas Hoftseader in Gödel, Escher, Bach; an Eternal Golden Braid. Additionally, Dodgson suffered from migraines, another thing we share.

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John Weiss