Child

The middle-aged Indian man who was loitering in the entrance to the underground claimed not to have one.  He was wearing a red dragon costume made of synthetic fur whilst collecting money for the mental health of children.

At the other end of London, in an upmarket supermarket, my eye was drawn to a bottle of ready-made pancake mix.  All that was required was to add water and shake.  I was impressed by the ingenuity of the product and decided not only to buy a bottle but that its creator, American household saviour Betty Crocker, should be today's middle name.

Compared to a properly-followed recipe, Betty's mix was slightly disappointing (her batter was sticky and difficult to flip).  But more disappointing was the discovery that the cultural icon and top brand name is not a real person.  According to Wikipedia, the name was developed by the Washburn Crosby Company in 1921 as a way to give a personalised response to customer product questions.  'Betty' was chosen because it is all-American and cheery, 'Crocker' because William Crocker was a director of the company.  They neglected to think about something to go inbetween.

Instead, today's middle name is that of the real woman behind the facade.  Marjorie Husted, who was born in 1892 and lived to the age of 104, was a home economist and helped to develop the brand.  For twenty years from 1924 she was the voice and wrote the script for the radio show, Betty Crocker Cookery Show of the Air.

I don't know whether she had a hand in Betty's 'Shake-to-Make' pancake batter.