My favourite Newfoundland radical Greg Locke — who apparently also takes a heckuva photograph — has a link to this blog on the blogroll at his blog. He has that linked titled “David Akin – On the Hill” (and I don't think he meant Signal Hill).
It struck me that I've got a pretty dull title for this blog — this blog's title used to be “David Akin” — and that something like “On the Hill” at least gives a visitor here a quick snapshot of what I'm trying to do here. (See bio if you're confused). So, as of now, this blog is called “David Akin's On the Hill”. I like the fact that the title can go either way, as in, “David Akin is On the Hill” or “On the Hill belongs to David Akin”. Anyhow — thank you Greg for the inspiration.
Which got me to think — naming your blog is a tough proposition.
I've had precisely three columns (the closest thing to blogs I can think of) in my journalism life and I had to come up with names for each of them. At The Ontarion, where I was editor-in-chief, my column was called “Dance of the Wood Nymph” and I have no idea why.
(The radio show, incidentally, that I had while at the University of Guelph's CFRU, was called Hip City, something I took from the tune by Junior Walker and the All-Stars. The late Dan Gallagher, a friend and long-time DJ colleague while at Guelph, helped in a big way pick that title.)
Then I moved on to the Orangeville (Ont.) Banner where I covered city council and wrote a weekly column about municipal politics. The mayor at the time operated a furniture store that was directly opposite our offices at the Banner so I called my column “Across the Street”. I guess you needed the inside knowledge.
Then I went to the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal and I was told to be a business reporter and write a weekly column. I called it “All Business”. That was my favourite column title and I'm happy to see that my former National Post colleague and top notch business writer Steve Maich uses it as the title for his business blog at Maclean's Web site.
For those visitors to this blog who have the misfortune of not being Canadian, the Hill, in Canadian political life, refers to the Parliamentary Precinct which includes the Canadian House of Commons and the Senate. Most Canadians would simply know it as Parliament Hill — my new beat.
You do realize that if your blog is seening to be slipping in quality, snide, unkind people will say “David Akin's Going Downhill”? :^)
Cheers
Bill D.
Bring it on, I say!
Ah, Dance of the Wood Nymph, I remember it well. Better than the name of my Ontarion column, “Drool”. Rock on J Dave!
Drew