Skype: a new kind of pick-pocket?

I've just been reading about Skype, e-Bay's Internet phone service, and "Skypecasts." Whoever came up with a name like Skype? It sounds more than vaguely illicit -- no, illicit would probably be a good thing. It sounds sneaky and shifty -- perhaps because it rhymes with swipe. More than anything, it sounds like a name Dickens might have come up with. I picture an unshaven Mr. Skype with fingerless gloves and a greasy top hat -- maybe the name reminds me of Bill Sikes? Somebody I know used to say (jokingly) that she wanted to name her kids Pucky and Smike, and that rings in my head, too. And then there's the British slang term "skive," which means to slack off or shirk a duty.

I wonder how long it will be before Skype is part of my daily vocabulary.

Speaking (writing?) of names, I was flabbergasted when the daily free newspaper called DOSE debuted last year -- to someone of my generation, a "dose" was a case of venereal disease. If you were unlucky, you might get a "dose of the clap" or just "the dose." When I mentioned this to some of my students, they of course looked at me like I was Methuselah. To them, the word has only drug connotations. Of course, the execrable DOSE is not aiming at me.