Friday, February 28, 2020

What's in a name?

People can agonize over names with good reason.  Names matter; in the Bible, God changed several peoples' names after He called them and gave them a mission (Abram became Abraham, Saul became Paul, etc.).  Names are powerful, meaningful, important. Today's post is about choosing this blog's name.

This isn't my first attempt at a Magic blog; I started one last year (with two whole posts; wow!) called Tragically Blathering.  It was (in my opinion) an amusing twist on Magic: the Gathering.  But what does it convey?
1) tragically: it was to the detriment of all invested
2) blathering: there was nothing of value
It was probably an accurate title, but ultimately not the impression I wanted.

I started thinking of new names shortly thereafter.  I thought a Magic card name- or a twist on one- might better fit the bill. And then, it hit me: a long time ago, there was a Magic card called Orcish Librarian.

The card image is amusing- note the librarian not only eating his wares, but enhancing the flavor with library paste.  The card text is chaotic, a definite roll of the dice: you look at the top 8 cards of your deck, exile 4, and put the rest back on top of your deck in the order you choose.  A gamble to be certain, as you may end up exiling the 4 best cards and leaving yourself hung out to dry for the next 4 turns.  At first glance, there's no reason for this to see play in anything but lighthearted Commander decks (though this deck has some potential).

A simple twist on the name made it "Dorcish Librarian," and I had my blog title.
1) Dorcish: a twist on dork, "a silly, out-of-touch person who tends to look odd or behave ridiculously around others" (from dictionary.com)
2) Librarian: one responsible for maintaining a collection of books [or information]

The name, combined with the spirit of the card, captures what I want this site to be: a silly, out-of-touch, chaotic and lighthearted site housing a wealth of information, some useful, some nonsense. 

Welcome to the Dorcish Librarian.

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