I've been using the nickname "Gub" since 2005. And, sadly, almost
NOBODY ever asks me about the origin of the nickname "GUB". 

Well, even if you aren't the slightest bit interested, here's the story!

   "GUB" is an acronym for Great Uncle Barrhaven... GUB

And, Great Uncle Barrhaven was fashioned in the spirit of Great Uncle
Bulgaria, leader of the Wombles of Wombledon, a fictional
community introduced and occasionally mentioned in British freecycling
circles.

So, what's the connection between Wombles and FullCircles and
Reuseit and freecycling you ask?

Wombles are pointy-nosed furry creatures that live in burrows, where
they help the environment by collecting and recycling rubbish in useful
and ingenious ways. 

Their motto is "Make Good Use of Bad Rubbish"... thus the obvious
connection between Wombles and FullCircles.

Wombles are fictional characters created by British Elisabeth Beresford,
originally appearing in a series of five children's novels from 1968.
The characters later became nationally famous in the mid 1970s as a
result of a popular BBC children's television show using stop motion
animation. A number of spin-off novelty songs also became major hits
in the British music charts.

The Wombles "green" message was way ahead of its time in the 1970s.
Although Wombles live in every country in the world, the stories focus
on the life of the Wimbledon Common burrow in London, England.
Beresford reportedly invented the name "Womble" when one of her young
children referred to Wimbledon Common as "Wombledon Common".

All of this got images of Ottawombles dancing around in my head.  I
visualized Ottawombledon as a Canadian colony of Wombledon, a place
located just outside of Ottawa.  Or maybe it was somewhere inside
Ottawa's Experimental Farm.  It doesn't really matter. And I decided
to become "Gub", short for Great Uncle Barrhaven, since I seemed to
be the first (and only) Canadian... in fact the first and only person...
to visualize linkages between Wombles and freecycling / fullcircling /
reusing. So, why not just become the self-appointed leader of
Ottawombledon, this imaginary Canadian community!  Seems to be a
job no one else wants.

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