Fun with triple-barrel names

During the mid-1990s, my friend Paul Johnson encouraged me to start selling my writing. “Pableaux” had that rare ability to bring out the best in others. Throughout February, I’ll share some pieces we created together—each one bringing back hours of bouncing ideas around until a concept felt solid.

First up, a fun list idea of mine that he and I kicked back and forth:

Fun with triple-barrel names

Lee Harvey Korman, Stevie Ray Charles, F. Scott Baio, Andrew Lloyd Bentsen, Edgar Allen Funt, James Earl Scruggs, F. Murray The K., Anna Nicole Simpson, Joe Don Knotts, Charles Nelson Rockefeller, Joyce Carol Burnett, Melissa Joan Rivers, Sandra Day George, Jamie Leigh Majors, Kenny Wayne Gretzky, Sarah Michelle Phillips, Jennifer Jason Priestley, Alexander Graham Nash…

Sir Arthur Conan O’Brien, Jean-Claude Akins, E.G. Gordon Liddy, L. Ron Palillo, C. Thomas Pynchon, George Bernard Goetz, Ralph Waldo Pepper, George Washington Irving, Frank Lloyd Bridges, Vincent Van Morrison, Francis Scott Bakula, Robert Penn Gillette, Jean-Jacques Cousteau, George Rogers Hornsby, Harry Dean Jones, Tommy Lee Meriwether, Billy Bob Hope, Lisa Marie Osmond, William Henry Gibson, Julia Louis-Anderson, Martin Luther Vandross, Jan-Michael Jordan…

J. Edgar Winter, Billy Ray Bolger, Tennessee Ernie Kovacs, Mary Stuart Margolin, Tammy Faye Dunaway, Ellie May Sarton, Chris Makepeace Thackeray, Jerry Jeff Goldblum, Sally Jesse Ventura, David Ogden Nash, F. Lee Grant, David Alan Suess, Hans Christian Slater, Roscoe Lee Atwater, Johann Sebastian Cabot, Mary Elizabeth Montgomery, Jonathan Taylor Dane, John Cameron Diaz, Anthony Michael Landon, Bruce Jay North, Gypsy Rose Marie, Norman Vincent Price, Sarah Jessica Savitch, Olivia Newton Minnow, Sugar Ray Liotta, Marvelous Marvin Hamlisch.