Once I decided I wanted to write a blog, the next big question was what to call it. I wanted something cool and funky and unusual but not so strange as to have people scratching their heads. So I started writing down a number of ideas on a piece of paper, thinking I was such a clever girl. But then when I tried to sign up to WordPress to create my very first website, every domain name I typed it was returned with a “this domain name is not available”! Seriously?! So in the end I came up with a dreary name – libragirlrules…because my star sign is Libra and I’m a girl and well, I’m setting my own rules in this blog. Original or what? Ha!

So it got me thinking about how we choose names. A couple of very good friends of mine recently gave birth, both were boys and both have been given great traditional names: one is Nathan and the other is Marcus. I remember when my sister was pregnant, she and my brother-in-law were conscious of what they were going to name the baby to minimise any likelihood of the child being teased about his/her name (they didn’t know the sex of the baby at the time) and even thinking carefully about the initials the baby would have. Celebrities giving their babies “unusual” names have almost become the norm rather than the exception these days. Apple is a fruit. Moses parted the Red Sea. Sunday Rose – admit it, we all thought it was reference to an evening meal.

Then there are television show titles. Jeff Eastin, creator of White Collar was recently asked if he had ever considered another name for the show.  In fact, Eastin said the show was pitched to network executives as Commuted, referring to a convicted criminal having his sentence commuted (reduced) by being released into the custody of an FBI Agent to help solve white-collar cases (a la Catch Me If You Can) but the executives didn’t like it and asked for a different name.  Well, I, for one, am happy that the executives asked for a different name, otherwise, what would us fans (now known as Collars) be called?  Would we be called Commuters?  Somehow that just conjures up images of being stuck on a dirty train instead of a suave, sophisticated and smooth criminal.

And what about everyday items? Someone recently sent me an email that said something along the lines of:

Remember when

• a “mouse” simply referred to a rodent you ran screaming from?
• the “web” was spun by arachnids?
• a “bookmark” was what you put inside a book to mark the page where you are up to?

And so on.  You get the idea.

So in answer to the question some of my friends who have been following my blog have been asking: What does “The Other Vanity Cards” mean?  Well, if you are a Chuck Lorre fan (creator of such TV hit shows as Dharma & Greg, Two and a Half Men, and The Big Bang Theory, you will have noticed that at the end of each episode after the credits have rolled, there is a 2 second display of a screen full of seemingly random thoughts – his “Vanity Cards” (check them out at http://www.chucklorre.com/).  At the time of writing, Chuck is up to card #288.  I guess Chuck is a blogger ahead of his time!  So this is my way of paying tribute to a comic genius.  Thank you Chuck!

Toodles! xxx