Wha in the Whaaa?

In February, this blog will be two years old. It's been a great run.

In that time, I've gotten four emails asking me "what's with the name?"

You'll be sorry you asked.

In the late '80s, in response to the scads of little DIY 'zines from lefty organizations the flooded the entryways of libraries and bookstores throughout the cities, I put out a little, photocopied conservative broadsheet, "Reel News". It was a combination of counter-subversive conservative thought, punk rock news, and...well, basically, the same stuff we put in blogs today. Back in those pre-Internet days, before I owned a computer, I did the masthead on a Mac ($6 an hour at Kinkos back then), and did the rest on the typewriter my parents gave me as a high school graduation present (which I still have in my basement). I was dirt-broke in those days - I'd make maybe 100 copies, and leave them in bookstore and record shop doorways, from whence I'm sure most were taken directly to the trash by store staffs.

Time went on. I fell off the face of the earth, got married, had kids, got a career, got divorced...and discovered Blogger. And I thought "this is what Reel News needed, all along!"

So around 10PM on February 4, 2002, I logged into Blogger for the first time, intending to resurrect the broadsheet of my misspent youth...

...and paused. The name meant nothing to anyone but me. "What SHOULD I call this thing?"

I flipped through a couple of dozen names, and at one point you people came within a mouse-click of reading "Berg, The Blog!" , before I trashed it.

"I need something else", I thought. "This is such a..."

"...shot in the dark", I thought, and the wheels started turning:

• I'm a concealed carry activist
• A shot in the dark is accompanied by a brief flash of light
• The film noir reference is irresistable
• Much of what I do is a figurative "shot in the dark", both personally and, er, blogonally.
• Nothing tastes better than a shot of vodka on a cold night in a darkened bar. OK, I'm stretching it a bit now...

So there it is.

Now you can sleepat night.

Posted by Mitch at January 6, 2004 06:00 AM