As a follow on from this post, Another Shandy I thought I'd take some time to explain how Shandy's blog came to be called, well, Shandy's blog ;-)
I have to admit that the exact reason why I ended up using the alias Shandy has been hidden by the mists of time. I tried to think back and figure out how I came by the name and came up with the following possibility. I definitely remember one of my friends, Neil, took to calling me Shand. I suspect it might be associated with my liking for beer. I have been a member of CAMRA for more years than I care to remember. I am definitely not reknowned for my capacity to drink beer (4 pints is about my limit); I prefer quality to quantity. Now in the UK a shandy is traditionally a drink of bitter (a type of beer) with lemonade added; i.e. not a real beer but a diluted one. I also know I always used the term Shandy Drinker as a term of disparagement. As my name is Andrew, shortened to Andy I suspect that these various references led to Shand being arrived at as a nickname. I added the y back on when I created my first personal web site, back in 1996, as Shandy seemed a good name to go by and I had never heard of anyone being called that before. Ever since then I have used it as a login name on various web sites and as a general internet pseudonym.
Of course, since the internet took off I have found out there are a one or two other Shandys about and a famous character in a book called Tristam Shandy. A search for Shandy in Google reveals my blog listed at the dizzy heights of Page 4. There are a lot more popular Shandy's than me out there ;-)