Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Naming websites
Website names are a tricky - though interesting - business. Some site names are amusing, some are cute, some are evocative, some are informational, some are funny. It all looks so easy when you just go to them, but try and come up with that perfect word or phrase and you discover how hard it is. Naming my blog seemed like a piece of cake compared with coming up with something catchy and just right for a jewelry site. I don't want too cute and I don't want my name and I don't want something with numbers and letters that you have to read aloud to understand. It could be a wonderful name or word, possibly misspelled, since some terrific words catch your attention and maybe even make you want to know more. I mean, Tiffany didn't used to equate with fine wonderful things and there's no intrinsic reason for Goodyear to be about tires. On the other hand, Yarn Market sells yarns and Country Curtains markets window treatments with a homey tone. The more I think about it, the less anything sounds acceptable let alone good let alone something I want to put out there for all the world to see. Anyway, thoughts or suggestions gratefully welcomed.

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Permalink | 4 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:12 AM

Thursday, June 19, 2008
Geese, ganders and you must be kidding
The AP has let lose a pebble of an edict that is causing huge ripples of frustration and anger all over the internet. They have decided to charge for quotations of more than 1 word, believe it or not. Hot Air posted about it here and Michele Malkin wrote about it here and Patterico wrote about it here, noting especially the enormous irony of the fact that the AP quoted from blogs when they announced their new policy. Apparently the AP goose thinks itself so sacrosanct that it cannot bear the idea of any ganders using their words other than they themselves. In the age of wikis and other shared information, this will surely not hold up under any legal testing, as Laura points out. Laura also points out that "the AP quoted 154 words of a Patterico post on [a well-known] controversy . . . [while at the same time] going after a blogger who used far fewer [than 154] words from an AP article than the AP lifted from Patterico's. . . . ." This is ludicrous. First people are arrested for cheering loudly during a graduation ceremony, and now this. The world is going mad again. Quick, someone put the axis back in place.

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Permalink | 1 comment(s) | posted by jau at 3:40 PM

Monday, June 16, 2008
Thought for today
Someone sent me this quotation and I think it's terrific from about a million points of view:
Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals.
You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your despair. (Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964))
If only we (read: I) could remember all these points all the time.

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Permalink | 0 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:22 AM

Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Pith
There's a quotation appearing on Tom McMahon's sidebar which seems so apt today that I must reprint it. Apparently the pundits believe HRC is likely to accede to BHO more or less momentarily. My thinking is that perhaps she only thinks she wants to be president. I mean, who in their right mind would really want to be president?! Have you ever compared their photos just before they take office and just before they leave? Eight years doesn't usually do such damage.
There's a basic human weakness inherent in all people which tempts them to want what they can't have and not want what is readily available to them.
-Robert J.Ringer
Perhaps she will be Sec'y of State or Health, or even v.p., and will do it so well that it will be self -evident that that was what she really wanted. You think?

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Permalink | 2 comment(s) | posted by jau at 9:01 AM

Saturday, May 19, 2007
Rhyming slang
I'm reading a book by one of my favorite bloggers (The China Girl by John Baker), detailed reactions to which will follow when I'm done. In the meantime I must mention that he forges phrases and puts a few words together in some ways that are startling and quite lovely. Not banging you over the head literateur-ly, just spot on. It's requiring self-control for me not to gulp the book down way too fast but I don't want to miss anything, not to mention lose the pleasure of relishing it. 'Course, I'm dying to know who's done what and why. Patience.

Meanwhile, a side note on rhyming slang. I've always loved its construction's wit and slight of hand (so to speak). Then, the other day, one of t2cgitw invented some "teen" numbers (e.g., bubbleteen, skyteen, mommyteen, grassteen, etc.). I figure that any baby toddler who makes jokes about words deserves to hear rhyming slang. So up the mental apples and pears to make a few of my own. And I welcome any suggestions.

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Permalink | 3 comment(s) | posted by jau at 8:34 AM