Monday, November 22, 2004

Renaming Controversy Rages, Threatens to Divert Attention From Bush's Fascist Coup

"Bemused" is a wonderful word, often misunderstood and misused, but it is fair to say that my wife was bemused by my decision, solemn to the point of anguish, to rename my blog. My interest in this blog -- which is to serious writing and the pursuit of scholarship as collecting roadkill is to a career in taxidermy and/or haute cuisine -- is something she approves of, as women have always approved of the trivialities with which their men absorb their manly energies the way cat litter absorbs motor oil dripping from an ageing internal combustion engine.

That was what I was driving at with the new blog title, "Us Tarzan, Them Jane," capturing as I thought it did the playful yet poignant image of men standing in an inarticulate clump, yearning after those brainy things in leather mini-skirts who are so helpful in teaching us which of those among our acquaintance verge on the homo sapien and which, not to put too fine a point on it, are so much monkeyshine. I thought a little retro stereotyping was just what was needed to get this blog Out There, picking up links (insert "missing link" joke here when phrasing is perfected) and generally parachuting behind enemy lines in this the age of Bush Triumphant. The road to a new Democratic majority begins with a thousand first steps and this, I thought, was one.

But MackDoggy, one of the exclusive circle of original readers of this blog, says it's a stupid name and that Petri Dish would, in fact, be better. Am I not correct in supposing a petri dish is place for the growth of bacteria? Pretty small dish? Pretty insignificant bacteria?

Well, you readers out there other than MackDoggy, tell me what I should do. Is he just a one-man exit poll, premature and misleading, the judgment of which will be contradicted when the lunch-pail crowd and the soccer moms get their 56K modems fired up and running? I am ready for the verdict. I will shift with the wind. How about a playful, even sportive, name like "...and A Blog to Be Named Later"? It's late at night. I'm drawing a blank here.

Help me out. Think of the children. It's always about the children, damn their black little hearts.

13 comments:

....J.Michael Robertson said...

How about "Here's Looking at Me, Kid." It's wry, it's retro, it's solipsistic.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

Or, "A Boy's Best Friend is His Blog." Or "Blog is My Co-Pilot."

Anonymous said...

The Light is Dimming

Anonymous said...

How about Bemused?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

Hmmm. Something something Bemusement Park. Or is that too fey? Or do I mean twee?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

And the Light is Dimming sounds like a famous line from somewhere in addition to being a rather cruel comment. Geez, why don't I just call it Mr. Alzheimer and His Neverending Story?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

"Eat My Spinach!" I like it.

....J.Michael Robertson said...

If I choose the wrong blog name, Tizzie will drop me like a bad habit.

Anonymous said...

I like petri dish. bacteria=dirt. dish=gossip. what more do you want?

xxoo l.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like you have an identity crisis there, Michael. How many times have you changed the name of your blog, anyway? Not that I don't sympathize -- I want to start a blog myself and can't think of a good title for the darn thing. Whatever you want to call it, I'll read it. How's that?

....J.Michael Robertson said...

So l. wants me to call the blog "Open Sewer" and most-recent anonymous wants me to call it "Whatever." My wife wants me to call it "The Voyage of the Beagle" or "Leftbrain" or "Click Your Heels Together, You're in Kansas. Turn Left, and You're in California" or "Out of the Fog" or "Late for Dinner" or "Prodigal Fun with the Prodigal Son." I kind of like "Prodigal Son." This is a heavy responsibility.

Anonymous said...

Is Resistance taken? Given the trend of recent political developments, each of us need to be a center of opposition to the jackbooted opposition that will bring down a long night of darkness unless we organize. When women no longer control their own bodies because of Thomas, Scalia and other fundamentalists and our Imperial armies bend the world to our desires, weblogs will be the means to strike at the enemy.

Anonymous said...

Whoa, that last comment is a bit over the top. The worst we can expect is a nip and tuck here and there with our civil liberties. No biggie.