Who is Ajax Knox?

There once was a man from Nantucket...

No. Ajax Knox's real name was Arnold Joseph Knox, and he much preferred the dose of mythology once the name Ajax entered the picture.

Why his parents had picked Arnold continued to escape him. He'd started going by A.J. in college, and ended up working as a newswriter, and then a producer, in local television station newsrooms, starting small, then growing.

In the computer system A.J.'s newsrooms would use, there was a place in each story involved in a newscast or show where a "writer" is designated -- who will write this item, the reporter, a producer or writer, an anchor? Sometimes it's only 3 letters, and it's also used to indicate if the story is finished and ready for air. The writer's two initials would be followed by an X if nothing is done on the story yet, an exclamation point (!) if it's partially (in)complete and some finishing touches remain, or nothing following if it's completed.

When A.J. started being in charge of picking writers for his newscast -- his first was a 90-minute monster of a morning show following the syndicated farm report in Boise, Idaho -- he'd put AJX for whatever reason, instead of AKX. It looks like too many hacking slashes, he thought to himself.

It took two weeks once he took over the show for the just-starting-to-age female anchor to feel at ease with the new hire in order to josh him. "Your initials look like Ajax, the foaming cleanser."

"Well, I do keep myself clean," Arnold said, looking over his glasses and trying to make it a laugh-worthy double entendre.

The joke didn't go very far, the woman gave him a "Whatever" look, and A.J. turned red and buried his head in his keyboard (well, stared hard at the keys, while peering up at the computer screen) and begged all that was holy to keep him from saying something else stupid ever again.

Which never works.

The nickname stuck, though. By the next day, he'd looked up both Ajaxes of Greek mythology.

Ajax the Great seemed a little far-fetched for the 5'7" producer: strong, powerful -- even vicious -- surviving all the battles of Homer's Iliad, but in the end falling on his own sword when he wasn't awarded with prized armor.

Ajax the Lesser was also kind of middling: though he was accused of hauling Cassandra out of a temple after the taking of Troy, he was also brave and intrepid, a skilled spear-thrower and was second only to Achilles in speed of foot.

Ajax the Middling, Arnold felt like. Then again, nobody else, but NOBODY else, would be answering to the name Ajax. "Hi, it's Ajax," he might say while on the phone. It would be the one, the only, Ajax.

And when he wrote it out, adding his last name, Ajax Knox not only had a distinctive double-X, but also had a name recognition that -- who knew? -- just might one day rival Perez Hilton.

Now he just had to do something with it.