A "call sign" is radio transmission tradition; it's a nickname or code used to designate the speaker (either as a particular person, location, or vehicle).
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| Like "14 Aelous Umbra", which still mystifies me. |
Truckers with CB radios use call signs (or, as they call them, "handles").
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| Like, "Razorback". |
Ham radio operators use(d) them.
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| Like the discoverer of life on Mars, W6XRL4. |
They remain popular in aviation, particular military aviation.
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| Like USAF aviator Captain Hal "Highball" Jordan. |
I, for one, however, find Hal's call sign ambiguous and inappropriate. Most people think it has something to do with Hal being a drinker. But really the only credible evidence for that is the slurring of his Filmation voice actor, Gerald Mohr.
"Eazhe ofph, To'-omm...."
In fact, it's certainly from the other, more obscure meaning of "highball": "to go at full or high speed", which you could easily imagine as applying to Hal as an aviator.
But I think DC really missed the mark when they chose "Highball" as Hal Jordan's call sign. Hal "Head Injury" Jordan would be asking for too much, I suppose.
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| "Headstrong"; I meant to type 'Hal "Headstrong" Jordan'. |
But watching Hal in the old Filmation cartoons made me realize there's another better call sign for him...
"Captain Obvious".
1 comment:
At the risk of repeating myself, Hal is handsome but dumb. He's almost a stereotypical dumb jock, which is honestly why he's so ineffective at wielding one of the "greatest weapons in the universe." He's damn near incapable of lateral thinking. I'm not sure if he was always that way or if it's cumulative head injuries.
"I was being attacked by a yellow bulldozer so I smashed through the windshield with my head and head-butted the driver until he was unconscious." "Uh, couldn't you have used your ring to lift the ground under the bulldozer and throw the whole thing into the Pacific Ocean without suffering head trauma?" "Oh, well, I guess that would have worked too."
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