Why Dogsbody?

A whole load of you want to know why it is that I use the name Dogsbody.  Well, It’s just a name that I have ended up with. At college I was classed as knowing a little about a lot of things, you could say that I am a jack of all trades and a master of none!! It also has the same initials as my name (DB), it is 8 characters long so it is handy for almost everything. It’s also my CB handle, my programming handle and well just a name I will use for anything!! Although, It went a bit far for a while, my main server was called Dogshead, my fax server was called Dogsfeet, my IRC bot was called Dogsbot, etc, etc. I have been very good at avoiding the obvious Dogsbollocks 🙂

Dictionary meaning:

dogsbody n. (pl. -ies) Brit.

1 n. a servile worker, esp. at menial tasks; a hack.

v.intr. (often foll. by at) work slavishly (at menial, hard, or dull work).

2 Naut. slang a junior officer.

UPDATE: I have since found out that the name has some pretty cool namesakes and was sent the following e-mail many moons ago…

“Dogsbody” was the radio call sign for a famous WWII British fighter pilot during the battle of Britain. Like you it was derived from his initials: D.B.- Douglas Bader. As a Wing Commander he had his initials painted on his plane and given his own call sign.

What made him famous besides being a brilliant leader, shooting down 22 German planes, and escaping from prison camp twice, was he did this all on two artificial legs, having lost both in a plane crash years before the war. All in all quite a man to share a nickname with.

… How cool is that 🙂

I’ve done some digging around on Douglas Bader and certainly confirmed the story. Lots of detail on him can be found online, including a photos. I particularly like the sentence… “Often, coming back across the Channel after a mission, Bader would flip back the canopy of his Spitfire, unclip his oxygen mask and, while holding the stick between his good knee and his tin knee, light up his pipe. Pilots flying alongside Spitfire DB would sheer off, half in jest and half in earnest, in case Bader’s plane blew up.” … how suave is that!?

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