Where my LJ name comes from

open_the_blinds tagged me, so here goes:

Princess Yakalskovich is a fake, and I picked the name because it is a very complicated fake. People might know that I keep a very long-suffering WIP about the murder of Rasputin in my metaphorical desk drawer (really on my hard disk, with copies online so even total computer lossage wouldn't destroy it)? Well, one of those Russian noblemen involved in that murder was Prince Felix Yusupov, a fascinating character of great vivacity. He positively leaps off the page off his autobiography with an unstoppable energy, a great love for interior design and gossip, wild exaggerations and an unquenchable sense of fun. He was bisexual and a cross-dresser; and from various evidence I by now conclude that he was into being submissive as well, even though there was no word for D/s yet in his time.

Googling his name to the very end, I once found this PDF document about the guestbooks from a lodge in Oregon, from the 1920s. Felix was in the US in 1924 to sell some of the family jewellery (his family was in exile, of course), namely the famous Peregrina pearl that belonged to his mother and is nowadays in the possession of Elizabeth Taylor) - but from his autobiography part 2 (not online, and procured from France with great effort, then read in French) there is no evidence he went that far west. Also, the handwriting isn't quite his; especially the backwards 'r' is completely missing, and I find that the most distinct feature in Felix' handwriting. The 'Princess Yakalskovitch' with him finally is completely unlikely; 'Yakalskovitch' isn't even a last name. It's a patronymic, meaning 'son of Yakal', with Yakal extant as a Tartar (that is, Russian muslim) first name. Something Yakalskovich Something-or-Other would have been an option for a typical three-part name, as in Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov. Thing is, Felix did run into a band of Tartars in New York that were eking out a living by playing and dancing in restaurants, he took them on and took them with him back to Europe, to remain his loyal followers. He did collect that sort of odds and ends people somehow. He only mentions the name of their leader (from the undertones, knowing Felix well by now, I concluded that he must have had an affair with the bloke, probably a very lasting one), but who is to say that one of his followers wasn't called 'Xxxx Yakalskovich Zzzz'? Whoever faked that guest book entry very, very probably met Felix and his people in New York; he had at least seen Felix' handwriting (now to judge from the similarities instead of the marked differences). Still, Princess Yakalskovitch? So not it!  I was amused when I had finally puzzled all that out, and adopted the 'Princess Yakalskovich' (with the 't' dropped on purpose so to make it ungoggleable) as one of my screen names in the old Wraeththu chat; the chat room let you log in several times from one computer, and I found it fun to multiply and confuse people. From there, I got onto LJ, (drawn by wiebke  and floppy_hat ) and took that name with me.


So, and after writing this dissertation, I now tag eigref (which is a backwards for 'Fergie', but why?), marchenland ('fairy tale country' in German, barring the Umlaut, but why?) and tahira_saki  to tell where their LJ name comes from.

Report to eigref, pr. 1

Schnozzle is being Miniver Cheevy for AU week, day one:

Wherein he is almost run over by a bouncy blond artist, plays the lute for him, and laments the good old times. Pictures promise further meetings. (Not quite finished as yet, but almost - you can imagine the three tags that will follow, but Seth Roth-mun had to go.)