|
|
The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
Oh My God, the RSS Feed Actually Works!
Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
Friends, Bloggers, Countrymen ... lend your ears to these people. I come not to bury them, but praise them.
Arik
Bill
Dan
Cole
Emily B
Emily G
Helena
Jee
Jewelz
Kaila
Kathryn
Mac
Robin
Slim
Souris
Mr. West
My TIME articles
All magazine articles (subscription required for older stories)
Online column index
|
|
|
|
|
Daily Blah for... Saturday, October 29, 2005
When's in a Name?
Quite possibly the coolest piece of web software ever is The Baby Name Wizard's NameVoyager. Type in a name, and a graph shoots up before your eyes displaying how popular that name has been (according to the US Social Security records of the top 1000 names for newborns) decade on decade. It's a little exciting, a little disturbing (the majority of names I know are past their prime) and always fascinating. There's something highly compelling about the visual marriage of chronology and names.
"Christopher," which is my full and proper moniker, was relatively unknown until the 1930s; it peaked in the 1970s and 80s, but at least it was the number two most popular name in each decade. (I don't know whether to cheer that or bemoan my two almost-victories. Isn't it better to win one decade than come second in two?) At the name's height, 15,000 in every million babies were named Christopher, or one and a half babies in every hundred.
There was a brief mania in the 1960s for naming a child simply "Chris," but the name only reached number 60 and declined sharply in the 1970s. In the 1980s, a small subset of people (rank number 596) started naming girls Christopher, but thankfully the trend sank without trace in the following decade.
Strangest of all the facts connected to my name is that, way back in the 1880s when records began, there were a lot of boys named "Christ." Well, not a lot, but it was ranked 420, so higher than average. But the practice completely dies away over the following 50 years, until there are no new Christs in the 1930s -- which is just when Christopher took off. Coincidence? Is it possible that had I been born a hundred years earlier, I would have been Christ Taylor? Are there any Christs left in America, and if not, who was the last Christ, and has anyone written a poignant historical novel with that title yet?
What's funny is that while we would blanche at the idea of saddling a child with that name, we're now relatively used to the first name "Jesus." It was ranked 70th of all boys' names last year and has been growing ever since the 1960s, thanks no doubt to the sure-and-steady boom in the Hispanic population. But back in the 1880s, it was less popular than Christ. Go figure.
|
|
|
|
