I have been corresponding for months with Ella Guru, the webmistress of the Stuckist site (www.stuckism.com), but I met her in person for the first time at today’s opening of the Real Turner Prize Show in Joe Crompton’s Pure Gallery in Shoreditch. She was surprised by my accent. “From your writings, I assumed you were British,” she told me over a plate of shishkebab. She was surprised by my name, too. “I thought it was an assumed name, like my own and that of many others,” she explained casting her free hand toward the crowd surrounding us. “Of course,” I thought as I looked around, “Billy Childish must have chosen his own name.” Then I remembered that I passed by the Thomson Finance office building on Leonard Street a block or two from the gallery: “God only knows, maybe even Charles Thomson has assumed his name!” Unfortunately, I forgot to ask him then and there. If anything else, he would appreciate the connection. On my way back to Reading, I decided to ask him about his name tomorrow evening, when we will meet again at the opening of the Turner Prize Show at Tate Britain.