News Surfing Name Games and Lexi-Links During the Summer of 2013

Weird summer, if you ask me. Lots of little random killings, interwoven with sudden deaths and surprise happy happenings.

The snake story is the one getting everyone's attention, for a variety of sad reasons. 

It is a horrible story to hear that two boys were killed in New Brunswick by an African rock python (Python sebae) on August 5, 2013. Source.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police are investigating the “sudden deaths of two young boys,” whom they believe were strangled by a python that escaped from a local pet store in the town of Campbellton, New Brunswick.

The snake escaped its enclosure at Reptile Ocean pet shop and slithered up a ventilation duct to the apartment above the pet store where the boys were sleeping, CBC News reported. The two victims had been spending the night at the home of a friend, after spending an afternoon petting llamas and goats.

The bodies of the two boys — identified as Connor Barthe, 7, and his brother, Noah, 5, according to The Toronto Star — were discovered early Monday, August 5, 2013, and police arrived at the scene at approximately 6:30 a.m.

Barthe is French in origins, a topographic name for "someone who lived on a piece of land overgrown with bushes or scrub," from the Old French barthe (a word probably of Gaulish origin). From German, it is a metonymic occupational name for "someone who made (battle) axes," from the Middle High German barte, Middle Low German barde "axe."

Connor means "lover of wolves, canines," or sometimes "wise." Noah means "full of peace."

In the realm of mass shootings, the most recent one happened also yesterday, August 5, 2013.

Fifty-nine-year-old Rockney ("Rockne") Warren Newell, of Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, (above), a self-described junk collector, decided to shoot up a municipal meeting in Rush Township, Pennsylvania. He used a rifle with a scope and shoot through a wall. He was allegedly unhappy about their rulings on his yard. The meeting was winding down at 7:23 p.m. when the shooting broke out. Witnesses described a scene of carnage and chaos following the shooting at the Anchorage Road building. Three men were left dead. (Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4.)

David Fleetwood, Gerard Kozic and James LaGuardia died in the bloody ambush. Frank Piraino Jr. and Linda Kozic were wounded. (Source.)

Newell generally is related to being "of the manor" or from the "new hall."

Warren is a power name, linked to Freemasonry and founding members of the American Revolution. The name is derived from an English family name, which is itself from a Normandy place name La Varenne, of the element garenne (meaning "game park," "game reserve").

The name Rockney, not too surprisingly, is of English-American origin, and means "one who is brash." The shortened version, Rockne, often on its own means "of a rock."

The African rock python killing took place in Campbellton ("town of the Campbells").

Black Watch or Campbell Tartan

Ancient Campbell Tartan

In Scotland, the name Campbell has its origins from two Scottish Gaelic words, cam and béal, meaning "crooked mouth" or "wry-mouthed," originally being a nickname that evolved into a surname. (I have remarked on the significance of the "Bell name" before.)

A purposeful incident of violence over the weekend involved a Campbell.

The driver of a car that slammed into a group of pedestrians on the Venice Beach, California, boardwalk at 6 pm on Saturday, August 4, 2013, killing one woman on her honeymoon and injuring 11 others, "was looking for blood," witnesses said.

Nathan Louis Campbell, 38, was driving a Dodge Avenger down the boardwalk, as he swerved and rammed his vehicle into the tightly packed crowds. Among the 12 people who were plowed into, one was Alice Gruppioni, 32, of Italy, who died in the hospital following the collision.

She was the newlywed daughter of an Italian businessman from Bologna, Italy. She died with her injured husband, Christian Casadei, at her side at a Los Angeles hospital, the newspaper La Republicca reported.

Gruppioni reportedly ran a family business in her hometown, Rastignano, a village just south of Bologna. Gruppioni was the daughter of Valerio Gruppioni, a businessman and former president of the Bologna soccer team.

Other shocking death news came from Italy, earlier.

Actor James Gandolfini died from a heart attack, on June 19, 2013, during a brief vacation in Rome, Italy. He had expected to travel to Sicily on June 22 to receive an award at the Taormina Film Fest. Following a day of sightseeing in Rome in sweltering heat, Gandolfini's 13-year-old son Michael discovered him around 10 pm local time on the bathroom floor at the Boscolo Exedra Hotel in Rome's Piazza della Repubblica. Michael called hotel reception, who in turn called emergency paramedics. Gandolfini reportedly arrived at the hospital at 10:40 pm and was pronounced dead at 11 pm.

Gandolfini was set to star with Steve Carell as rival palaeontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Marsh in the forthcoming BoneWars, from HBO Films.

More joyful news occurred on July 22, 2013, with the royal birth of George Louis Alexander, heir to the throne, eventually.

This "royal" news was then followed five days later with a mass shooting at a "royal" location.

The building across the street where Carlos Javier Gavilanes was shot by Pedro Vargas, is called Casa Royal, or Royal House in English.

Pedro Alberto Vargas

The gunman, Pedro Vargas, set his Hialeah, Florida, apartment ablaze and went on a shooting spree that killed six people before he was shot to death by a SWAT team after a nearly eight hour-long ordeal, on Saturday, July 27th. Source.

So, in summary: Pedro set his apartment on fire and then shot property managers Samira and Italo Pisciotti when they ran to see what was going on. His next victim was a man on the opposite side of the street, Carlos Gavilanes, who had just returned home from work.
He then broke down the door of another apartment and killed Merly Sophia Niebles, her husband Patricio and her teenage daughter Priscila Perez. After an eight hour standoff, a SWAT team shot Vargas and rescue two hostages that he was holding.

Pedro means "rock." Perez means "little rock."

Finally, an anonymous individual sent this along yesterday:

I noticed on Huff Post today [August 5, 2013] that Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem named their child today. That inspired me to know more about Javier Bardem (I wanted to know his real last name out of curiosity). I then read his wiki profile, and saw that he was one of the few Spaniards to win a BAFTA. That got me curious as to what exactly a BAFTA award was. Turns out it is a British equivalent of the Oscar.
I followed the link to BAFTA and noticed that the CEO of BAFTA is an AMANDA BERRY. Now I realized that "Amanda Berry" is also the name of the kidnapping victim of Ariel Castro. Also, it's interesting to note that the Royal Family are in control of the BAFTAS and have been since the 50's. Prince William (Diana's son) is the current President of BAFTA. I believe that it is conflicting that the Royal Family are who is in charge of awarding the honors when it was stated that "BAFTA is a rate predictor of the Oscar winners and lineup." Just interesting note, perhaps you can lexilink this information in the great way you know how.

Well, I little know what any of it means.

But as it happens, the birth of the Cruz-Bardem child, a daughter, named Luna Encinas Cruz, occurred on July 22, 2013, in Madrid, Spain - on the same day as the British Royal Family's new baby. 

Javier Ángel Encinas Bardem is a Spanish actor. He was born March 1, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, Spain. Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress and model. She was born April 28, 1974, in Alcobendas, Madrid, Spain.

Spanish naming customs call for the name of the father's name to be used as a middle name, and the mother's to be used as the last name, traditionally. Lexilinking of Spanish names has to take these rules into account.

Luna means "moon." The name Encinas is originally derived from the Spanish word encina, which in the region of Castile means "oak tree." Cruz means "cross."

One of Bardem's name is Ángel.

The most hopeful stories coming out of the tragedy of the Castro-Cleveland imprisonments was the efforts of "The Real Angel of Cleveland."

The summer is not over, yet. But Halloween is coming. And winter is coming.