Raymond Genovese

a.k.a. Ray

a.k.a. Cozy Bear

a.k.a. Worst Copilot EVER

Back in the day--which of course was a Wednesday--I was at the Riverside Resort Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nevada with my parents and siblings. I had recently purchased some Motorola Talkabout two way radios and this trip to Lake Mohave was to be their first trial. I rode the elevator downstairs to get everyone their morning coffee and pastries. A few floors from the lobby, with an elevator full of people standing around me in my pajamas, a voice crackled over the radio in my hand: "Brer Rabbit this is Cozy Bear come on back".

Where the hell my dad pulled out Brer Rabbit and Cozy Bear is probably best left a mystery. The Cozy Bear part stuck though, and at that moment a Genovese family tradition was born. Since then, anyone who travels with us when we have an occasion to break out the radios (i.e., the lake, Disneyland, etc.) is bestowed a nickname fitting of their personality. The rules state it needs to be a Disney nickname, but there are a few exceptions, the Cozy Bear being one of them.

By the way, Brer Rabbit didn't stick with me.  At some point during that fateful trip, I adopted the name Robin Hood.