Oh, Tara

So, when I was a kid I used to watch tv and WISH that the women on Romper Room would say my name, she never did. I wanted a song with my name in it to play at birthdays. I wanted someone famous to be named Tara. I wanted a television character to be named Tara. I mean it was bad enough that there were never things with my name on it and that still seems weird to me, I mean my name was your average name. Tara. Growing up people used to (and still do) associate me with Gone With The Wind. They always assumed my name came from that movie. My mother has never seen the movie. She opened a baby book and found a name that sounded good with my last name and she hadn't heard it a lot so she chose it. I was so annoyed by this association that up until a few months ago, I had never seen the movie either. I actually only saw it because I was working on a show about writing the screenplay for GWTW and we watched it as part of the information day. Then in 1991 enter Tara Kemp. I can't remember what she sang but I know she sang it on 90210. Unfortunately, she wasn't very good and she wasn't around too long. Then there was Tara Lipinski, but I was never into figure skating (except in the movie The Cutting Edge), and not enough people I knew were into it either so even though she did her 1st competative skating in 1994, I'm not sure I heard of her for a few years. And even though she is still skating today, you have to be a little hard core to remember her. Anyway, moving on... Then in 1998/1999 enter Tara Reid, by far the biggest thing to happen to the name since GWTW. She was the hot blond girl in American Pie and Urban Legend. (Incidentally she is only 18 days older than me). Right around the same time there was a character introduced on Buffy The Vampire Slayer name Tara, but I wasn't watching the show then so I had no idea. But she was pretty cool, at first she wasn't she was shy and awkward and a witch, literally; then she was cool, then she was killed. So much for that. Right around then Tara Reid, became associated with being a totally party girl, right when all of a sudden people couldn't get enough of Paris Hilton and the people she hung with- one of which was Tara. Then it became Tara Reid passed out drunk on a beach in Ibiza. Then It became Tara Reid bad plastic surgeory victim attempts to get her life back, but pretty much it was just formally drunk Tara Reid. Then people stopped talking about Taras. There were no interesting ones. I did in this time manage to find a song by The Knack called "Oh Tara" it's from their 1979 studio Album "Get The Knack", which also has "My Sharona" on it. Who knew? I guess if someone I knew had owned the album I could have played it at my sweet 16. Anyway...

Then all of sudden, Tara popped back into the headline, except it was Tara Connor, Miss USA making out with Miss Teen USA. (Sidenote: They are giving her a second chance- does anyone remember when Miss America dethroned Vanessa Williams for posing nude prior to her reign, her pictures only resurfaced because someone sold then to Penthouse-- I'm not making judgements either way, I'm just saying...) I give up. At least in college when people called me Pinky, there was a funny, however dim-witted, lab rat with the same name with a goal- try to take over the world. Anyway, my disappointment in my fellow Taras is ongoing. We've got a failed pop star; a figure skater; a dead, fictional, witch; a sort of reformed party girl with a botched boob job; and a drunk pageant queen who makes out with teenage girls in bars... I want a Tara to become famous and be awesome and scandal-free, or at least scandal-lite, or maybe just scandal that doesn't involve being drunk... anyway, if you made it this far, thanks for reading... (and I know, lots of people don't have famous namesakes, but for a reason that I don't remember- It was always really important to me... oh well.

Tune in next time when I talk about much more exciting things like shoe laces and cheese...