A Fish Called….. Joseph
Trisha and I had one of those “I can’t believe that” coincidences the other day. I was telling her that my daughter, Kennedy, wanted a fish as a pet. I told Trisha I used to have a pet fish as well. I kept him on my desk and the entire newsroom adopted him. “He was a blue Beta,” I said. Trisha said, “I had Beta in my old newsroom too.” I told her the name of my fish was Joseph. She said, “Oh my God, that was the name of my fish!!”
That was kind of weird. Of all the names. So the following day I told my wife about our conversation and the strange coincidence that we both had fish named Joseph that were pets for our respective newsrooms.
Then my wife said “Well you know honey (I may have added the honey part) my pet fish was also named Joseph.”
Wow!!!! That kind of freaked me out. Cue the Twilight Zone music. Where is Rod Serling? Three fish named Joseph!! But wait. There’s more!!
We finally go to the pet store to get Kennedy’s fish. She was so excited. We looked for the perfect Beta for my baby. I stopped to ask the employee for a little help. And you can probably guess his name. That’s right, Joseph!! (I promise I’m not making this up).
By now you’re probably thinking that after my daughter got her fish, she looked at me and said “Daddy, I want to name my fish Joseph.” Nope. Her fish is named Samantha Steven, apparently after one of her classmates. We asked if we could call the fish “Sam” for short. She said no way. Our reasons were simple enough. Samantha… is a boy. (But at least his name isn’t Joseph). BTW, no offense to anyone named Jospeh. But after three fish and a store clerk named Joseph, I was ready to move on. :-)


Powered by
Hi Todd!
What a great story! It definitely made me smile and it is truly a Twilight Zone moment. Your name doesn’t happen to be Joseph Todd Wallace, does it? haha
Ken
i was thinking the same thing!!!! but we may never know…. ha ha ha
have a good rest of the week!!!!
All I can think is.. One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish. Maybe its time for a Dr. Suess book?
It is a pretty freaky coincidence! (I will clarify one small detail - my fish was actually a dorm-room fish, not a newsroom pet, but close enough!)
My Joseph was a gift from a high school friend who gave it as a birthday present DURING THE SCHOOL DAY in my senior year. No way to be incognito about the b-day - I had to carry this fish in a bowl around all day long, and explain why, over and over. (She knew I wouldn’t have the heart to leave the little guy in a dark locker all day!)
I also remember that he was not just plain Joseph, but Joseph Erick - after two classmates, Eric Garay (still a close friend with a wife and 2 daughters in Northern California!), and Erik Mennecke (whose sister is now married to my brother!) I remember them each insisting I use their particular spelling, so I decided to include both the “C” and the “K” to cover both bases.
In case you’re wondering about a moreal for this story - here’s the best I can come up with:
We all clearly used to have a lot more time on our hands before careers and children.
IN LOVING MEMORY OF THE JOSEPHS,
Trish
Hey everyone,
Thanks for your responses!!!
Ken, my name is actually Todd David Wallace. But Joseph Todd does have a ring.
And Keith, you may be on to something with Dr. Suess. Believe it or not, we haven’t really introduced our daughter to Dr. Suess, but now may be time.
And Trisha, you are so right, we did have alot of time on our hands. Those were the days!!!!