why brassratgirl?

It doesn't have anything to do with MIT.

I'm not particularly attached to either brass, or rats.

While I'm fond of the series of Stainless Steel Rat science fiction novels by Harry Harrison, that was not the origin of the name (although I am pleased by the association.)

I am a girl, though.

I originally used 'brassratgirl' to sell jewelry on eBay, when I needed a name and was feeling unimaginative. It's since become my username in any number of online fora. As far as I know, I'm the only active Internet user with this nickname.

The name comes from my parent's art jewelry business, which was originally called the Brass Rat Delivery Service. For nearly thirty years, my parents made a living casting and fabricating jewelry and small sculptures. One of the things my mother began making were tiny metal (often brass) cast sculptures of mice, rats, dogs and other animals engaging in various activities -- a rat reading a book while sitting on a cheese sofa, for example. They were fabulously detailed and became quite popular among my parent's clientele. As for the delivery service part... well, that just seemed to make it more official.

Although they left off making the tiny animals in favor of more lucrative types of jewelry, the "Brass Rat" name became attached to many of my family's activities. 'Ratty' was our mascot; Ratty kept the books, decorated the house, planned the “office holiday party.” My mother died in 1996 after a protracted battle with cancer, but the name remained. I chose brassratgirl because it seemed natural at the time, not anticipating that I would keep it for so long, or that it would become the name I was known by, or that people would ask me about it, or that people would think I had attended MIT and was a proud alumna.

So my name is in memory of Sally Ann Ayers, 1944-1996. She was a wonderfully bright, witty person, a fabulous artist, and a loving mother. As far as I know, she never had so much as an email address; you cannot find her if you search online. But you can find this. Viva la Rat!

-- phoebe, 2005

b r a s s r a t g i r l a t g m a i l d o t c o m