Lurker wrote:I assume you are a dentist?
Or a druggie!
Nope and erm... nope, which isn't to say I haven't, just that I never saw the point
.
I love a good origin story and the nickname of novocaine has many depending on who you ask but it all stems from the same group of people at university where I studied mechanical engineering. ~I'm not sure which one I believe to be true and thing it's most likely a combination of all them to some extent.
I was a founder member of the now somewhat defunct university mountain bike society, I say defunct because it lasted all of 1 year before we were all so embroiled in other aspects of university live to continue the paperwork required by the students union to claim ourselves as a society, girls, booze, bikes and.........
Story no. 1.
we managed to get ourselves signed up to a day with the university dentistry dept. as test subjects for various pain killers and anesthetics, this was mainly because Big Dave (I was at the time known as little Dave thanks to my 5'10" diminutive stature), whos then girlfriend was studying there (I think it was her), I got lucky and whilst a fair few got a jab in the gob I got NO2 and Novocain. the goal wasn't to test if the pain was reduced, merely to show the students what the effects are. well the effects of laughing gas and Novocain on me are apparently rather amusing. I have to say I have no recollection of it but I'm reliably informed I spent most of the time off my * chatting up the lecturer, who was a 40 something married dentist with fantastic..... teeth. shortly afterwards, when ever I was seen in a bar or club talking to someone of the opposite sex a cry of "HE'S ON THE NOVOCAINE AGAIN" was typically heard, occasionally from someone not actually in the bar at the time. it got shortened and just became novocaine over time and the name stuck.
Story 2. not quite a verbose but apparently when cycling I had the tendency to not really feel the pain of falling of nor of pushing to hard and a few times it was suggested I was on something, that something got called novocain (steve martin movie and the song novocain for the soul by the eels being the reason apparently).
Story 3. completely untrue but still told by one of them to a girl in a nightclub in an attempt to impress her (I have no idea how this worked in his head) I once gave a girl such a good time that she slept like she was on novocain afterwards. I can vouch for this story being completely incorrect and in no way have I ever managed such a feat, you only have to ask my wife for that bit of information.
Story 4. shouting little Dave across a crowed student union was to confusing, there was a poster for a movie night on the wall above me and one of the movies was the aforementioned Steve Martin film, someone quipped that I should be called it and it stuck for the night, unfortunately it stuck for far longer. strangely at one point I had a few lecturers calling me by it too.
That's all the stories I can remember (it's been a fair few years now), you may pick which you find most believable or combine which ever you wish.
it's shortened to Novo by most and just Dave to other these days, I'm too old for silly nicknames. it is part of my email address though.
now the origins of the other nickname "Armando Liswickie the third" that's a different story and one that should be told by an ex who thought it was my name for the first 3 weeks of dating me.
Carbon fibre is just corduroy for cars.