A Short History of Meretrice

I am of the first generation of Americans that grew up with computers. I first started using computers at about four years old when my parents purchased a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. To say the machine was archaic is an understatement. It produced 16 dazzling colors on the small television that we used as a monitor. It didn't have a floppy drive and it used cartridges, pre-Nintendo, to run programs. If we needed to save any data, we used a cassette tape. Yes, a cassette tape. Later, my brother and Dad did upgrade the computer with two 5.25" floppy drives and a 300 baud modem, but that was much later.

Bit 'o trivia for the geeks out there: We had a spreadsheet program cartridge for the computer called "Multiplan" created by a little software company known as "Microsoft."

Around 1994, my brother and I convinced my dad that the "Tee-Eye" (as we called it) just wasn't cutting the mustard anymore. The family pooled our resources and bought a 486 computer. My brother soon after installed a state-of-the-art 14.4 baud modem and my social life took off when I discovered BBSs.

In San Diego, there is a free computing magazine called "ComputorEdge." No, that isn't a typo on my part. The publishers spelled "computer" wrong on purpose. At the back of the magazine was a listing of the local bulletin board systems. My brother and I began calling the BBSs nightly to talk in chat rooms and play online games such as Legend of the Red Dragon, and my personal favorite: PimpWars. Watching ANSI animation sex was my first porn.

My first BBS handle was "Bambi," because I was an attention-whore even then. Later, I changed it to "Deja Vu." Several of my BBS friends pointed out that this was the name of a local strip club, of which I feigned ignorance. Eventually, I tired of the stripper jokes and began looking for a new handle.

I had several criteria for my handle, based on the wisdom I had acquired about online culture over the past year.

1. I wanted a handle that sounded pretty. I am a girl after all, and a masculine handle is a pain in the ass because having to explain, "Yes, my handle is Green Troll, but I'm a girl" gets wearisome. I knew some girls that took masculine handles to avoid the endless propositions from the lonely geek-boys. I figured geek-boy attention was better than no attention at all, so I didn't mind.
2. The handle should be easily abbreviated, but not stupidly. Abbreviating handles occurs often online because long handles take too long to type. For example, if your handle is "Patriot," your friends (and enemies) will shorten it to "Pat." Bring on the androgyny jokes!
3. Finally, I wanted the handle to have several shades of meaning. Feminine yes, sexy definately, but not hyper-girly.

I really liked one girl's handle, "Mariposa." It sounds pretty, "Mari" works well, and it means "Butterfly" in spanish.

One night, I was explaining to Sister my handle conundrum. She said that she was reading a romance novel set in Renaissance Italy. At the back of the book was a glossary of the italian words used in the book. Maybe there was something in there that I could use. I don't remember which one of us found "meretrice," but I like to think that it was my very proper, scrupulous sister. I knew as soon as I saw it, that this was the handle for me.

Meretrice... Looks pretty? Check! Sounds pretty? Check! Possible abbreviations, Mere? Check! Shades of meaning, double-check! In italian, the word "Meretrice" means "whore."

Eventually the BBS scene died out as the internet gained popularity, but I have kept the handle. I started this blog about three years ago, but only recently decided that I wanted it to have it's own domain name. I was shocked to find that "meretrice.com" wasn't taken. It seems like the perfect domain for an italian porn web site. However, since it was available, I snatched it up for myself.

Meretrice has been my handle for over 10 years, and although my reasons for choosing it now seem pretty silly, it really has become part of my identity and who I am. Also, it really does seem to sum up who I see myself as. On the surface, I present a pretty, straight-laced and proper facade. Inside though, I feel rebellious and unconventional.

And that my children, is how Meretrice came to be.