What's in a name?

Totally Wink.

What a strange surname and domain title. What kind of person uses such a creative and thought provoking alias?

Well, it’s not so thought provoking as one might think, but it still catches folks’ attention.

So, here’s the story of how Totally Wink became such a phenomenon (well, at least in my head).

Years ago, when I was a young lad, I was in a cover band that was going to focus all its songs on the 1970s. Didn’t matter who the artist was (Captain and Tennille) or what the song sounded like (‘September’ by Earth, Wind and Fire). We were going to do the songs our own way (damit!).

One night, during a band meeting at the local Chili’s Restaurant, we reviewed our set list, pondered gig schedules, and discussed attire. Everything was going very smoothly (as were the industrial strength margaritas – on the rocks with salt) when it dawned on us that we lacked the one thing a working band needs, a name.
“Who were we?” we thought in between bites of our epic beef nachos and salsa. “What’s our niche” we deliberated while alternating our margarita and beer consumption. Finally, the lead singer announced, “We need a 70’s icon that we can have as the face of this band, so everyone start thinking about that” (this was before smartphones were invented). Well, that only left me (the bass player) and the singer as we were both born in the 60s and the drummer and guitar player were born during Disco’s peak (i.e. they had no clue).

So, names were launched out – Mr. T? Nah. Fonzi? No way. Poncherello? “What the hell is a Poncherello…” the drummer asked. Anyway, we continued and the guitar player says, “Who was this guy Wink Martindale? I remember my parents saying that was a funny name.” Like a ball peen hammer hitting your pinky toe in the middle of the night, it came to me. I said, (and probably was slurring a little when I said it) “Man, that’s totally wink…” The other guys waved me off like the drunk bass player I was and continued with their search.

Me? The next day at my job, working for an internet service provider, I bought the domain name Totally Wink (that was in 1993) and still have it. As for the band, we lasted about as long as a contestant on Tic-Tac-Dough and called it quits soon after. But the name, Totally Wink has lived on.