A Little Touch of Cobra Clarification on my Nom de Plume

There’s something that’s been bothering me for a little while now and I feel like it is time to address it. I get asked at least a half dozen times a month by people who read this blog why my pen name (blog name?) is Amanda Cobra. More specifically, they ask if it is some reference to the on-air nickname used by Corby Davidson of 1310 The Ticket, a sports radio station here in Dallas for those of you who are not in the area. Corby Davidson goes by the nickname “The Cobra” or “The Snake” or some variation thereof on the air pretty regularly and I guess people have assumed that since I write about sports a lot that I must have decided to in some way co-opt or coattail ride on that nickname. Here’s the story:

When I was 22, my five closest friends and I formed a girl gang/fake band called the Very Very Dangerous Cobras. We would have boys pledge by doing things like scrawling our VVDC gang sign across their abdomens or at the top of ladies bathroom doors at bars across town. One or two may still even be visible to this day in places like the Dubliner. The band never really got off the ground other than some great song titles. I still kind of wish that “Gallons of Lace” and “Stab Stab Stab” and “Five Dollar Lover/Five Dollar Cover (Slight Return)” had come to fruition. But we did start going by our “Cobra” names as a joke. But this also coincided with the Great Social Networking Revolution of 2003-ish. So Friendster came along and then Myspace and frankly, I never really loved the idea of giving over my complete identity to the internet so Amanda Cobra it was. It was just a nickname that stuck and then became the name under which I blogged. All of which sprung from a fake band who all collectively drank Cherry Vodka Sours in pint glasses on a nightly basis. We were all on a race to see who could get diabetes first, I guess.

Fast forward to early 2007. A good friend of mine named Aaron tells me that I should check out this radio station called The Ticket. He says that since I like sports so much, it’s weird that I don’t listen to it. He tells me to listen to the afternoon show called The Hardline. I listen to about 45 minutes of one show and tell Aaron that he has greatly misjudged me. I tell him that I can’t stand The Hardline and I don’t understand anything because it’s all just inside jokes and random disembodied voices coming out of nowhere that say things that don’t really pertain to anything that anyone is talking about. And perhaps most annoying, there is some tool who just keeps interrupting the other guys to mention that he has a flask in his car if anyone wants to have an after-party. Peace out. Aaron told me to not write it off and to stick with it and give it another few days. He also kindly explains what “drops” are to me. With that knowledge and after a few days of slowly being hipped to the inside jokes, I did start to find the show pretty entertaining. I would still get confused from time to time about who was who but Aaron made me a cheat sheet for quick reference (grumpy older guy who likes baseball = Mike/cocky younger guy who always talks about college football = Corby). I like the show a lot now. I thank Aaron for that. But to clear up any future confusion, here’s a cheat sheet for you: