A search for my first name on Google (I don't only search for my full name) reveals a fictional character on Doctor Who, an Irish golfer, one half of a musical duo called Joey + Rory, a blues singer and guitarist, a motivational speaker, another motivational speaker with the dammit-I-should-have-thought-of-that! web address, www.rory.com; a folk music artist, a Nashville guitarist, a New York State assemblyman, a minister, an author and British politician (Rory Stewart, who's written extensively about the Middle East), another golfer, a technology consultant, a so-so black-and-white photographer, a color photographer, an illustrator, and Wikipedia has a list of other Rorys, such as the ones with professions mentioned here, as well as poets, actors, football players, hockey players, a comedian, and a mixed martial artist.
Based on all that, I'm living up to the reputation of my first name. We Rorys either have artistic inclinations or unique careers. There doesn't seem to be any Rory with a job that deviates from that. And the Rory I found in a book I'm reading called Bowling Across America by Mike Walsh is no exception.
To honor his late father, as well as to do it for himself, Mike Walsh decides to bowl in all fifty states, gaining building media exposure, and soon a sponsorship from Miller to promote Miller High Life in exchange for a PR agency's support and $8,500, plus airfare to Alaska and Hawaii. Walsh is a grating attention whore after he sets out on the trip, but soon settles well enough into it that he's a decent enough guy.
While in Wisconsin, Walsh gets a call from a Rory Gillespie of American Bowler magazine, who wants to write a story about him and have someone from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel to also write a story about him. He meets with Gillespie, and learns that the magazine is part of the American Bowling Congress, which establishes the standards that bowling alleys abide by, and also tests bowling equipment, lane oils, and bowling pins, among other things. They're serious about what they do. The ABC merged with other organizations to become the United States Bowling Congress, but the aims are still the same.
So there's yet another Rory living up to the reputation of the name. When my parents named me, they had only heard of Rory Calhoun (they chose it not for Calhoun, but because they thought it was a unique name), and thought I was the only Rory in the world. Not so. But I'm proud to be upholding my end of the name.
