Monday, November 22, 2004

In which this weblog's title is explained and alternate titles are rejected.

I suppose I should have anticipated this, but my humble blog's first reader has been baffled by its title. It was meant to evoke a well-known statement about the nature of snowflakes, and thus, by extension, the wintry world of ski racing from whence it originates. Of course, now that I've had to explain the title, it's certainly lost some of its panache. Thanks, Jared.

Perhaps it would interest the reader to know that the idea for this blog was conceived while driving across Iowa, a very boring state which also, perversely, supported George W. Bush in the recent election despite having defeated him in 2000. While driving, I jotted down a list of possible titles (don't worry, Mom, my eyes never left the road). The next day, while driving across Nebraska, I pared the list down to the current title. In the end I decided it would be best to go with something vaguely skiing-related.

The list of alternate contenders, annotated:

  • "yellowsnow" (Tasteless.)

  • "middle park" (Too obscure; this is the name of the region in Colorado where Winter Park is located as well as the name of the local high school.)

  • "vox clamantis in colorado" (Too Dartmouth-y.)

  • "blue america" (Too political. Besides, it's probably taken.)

  • "boards of colorado" (Too obscure.)

  • "downhill battle" (A witty pun, but alas, already taken by a website that has nothing to do with skiing.

  • "patriotism means never having to say you're sorry" (Too cynical, preachy, political, and just plain pretentious.)

  • "meg white and the seven dwarves" (Too random, but I'll be damned if that wouldn't make a great name for Meg's backing band, should she ever go solo.)

1 comment:

Jared Alessandroni said...

The more I think of it, the more I appreciate the depth of the title. I like how it kind of drifts into infinity.