I know it's really juvenile, but every time I watch "Lost" and they make reference to what Richard Alpert told somebody, I can't help but laugh and picture our Richard as the never-aging Others member on "the Island".

I think this has the makings of some kind of syndrome....

Perhaps that explains the DWI curse among the actors on the show?

I'm glad someone else brought this up, because I snicker every time I hear his name on the show.

SO GLAD I'm not the only one.....

My wife still doesn't get it, though (she having never met Richard - despite my explanation of who he is) when I laugh and say (in the voice of "ButtHead"):

"He said Richard Alpert."

I have not watched the show since Season Two so I have never seen the character but I sure did get a lot of calls and emails at the start of the new season. I intend to rent Season 3 on Netflix so no spoilers please. FYI I am much more comfortable sharing my name with a TV character then with Ram Das.

Richard, you could definitely do worse. He appears to be immortal, he's adored by his followers, he travels the world, and he's smokin' hot!

Yes, I get a kick out of it too.

Alpert is like some sort of Benjamin Button character, except that instead of aging backwards, he just stopped growing older some years back, like he's stuck in a time warp.

Thing is, Richard, lots these characters in the show seem to be named after famous philosophers/scientists:

Danielle Rousseau
John Locke
Mikhail Bakunin
Boone Carlyle
Desmond Hume
Jeremy Bentham
Daniel Faraday
Eloise Hawking

and, of course,

Richard Alpert, a.k.a. Ram Dass, if you want to call him a philosopher/scientist.