18/05/05 The name's Park... Jim Park

http://www.thestand.co.uk/listings/listings_edin_july.htm

So anyway, I get to appear on The Stand web listings on account of doing the upcoming weekend shows on 14th/15th/16th July. Fame at last.
Although I have done a lot of gigs for The Stand in Edinburgh and Glasgow, I have up till now always been included in the "and guests" generic description.
My excitement was slightly curtailed by noticing that I am billed as "Jim Parks" instead of the correct "Jim Park". This may seem a rather petty complaint. However, I've had a whole lifetime, up till now anyway, of people getting my name wrong.
"Jim Parks" is a hardy perennial, and when I'm giving my name on the phone, approximately 50% of recipients will start referring to me as "Mr Clark". I always say my name now, then unprompted, immediately spell it..."P - A - R - K", just to prevent any confusion.
I presume the "Jim Clark" thing is a consequence of my name sounded fairly similar to the late Scottish racing driver who used this name.
It's unfortunate for a great number of reasons that he died in a car crash, but one of the lesser ones is that I'm denied the chance to ask him if people started referring to him as "Mr Park" if he happened to be giving his personal details on the phone.
I don't think this is just me over-reacting here. I know plenty of people who get grumpy at their name being incorrectly spelt. I think the problem is that there is no escape. Unless you change your name to something totally unambiguous and deadly dull like "John Smith", or even "Richard Arnott", you are sentenced to a whole life of correction and exaggerated pronounciation and being eventually forced to assault repeat offenders.