Top Ten Blogs That I Can’t Spell

~ Laura

I’m the poster-child for misguided, experimental approaches to reading. I never learned phonics and can’t spell worth a damn. Which is why I humbly request that bloggers make their blog names easier to spell. Look at mine. It’s three characters. Means nothing, but it is very easy to spell.

Now here are my top ten blogs and blogger names that I can’t spell:

1. Pharyngula
2. Echidne of the Snakes
3. Majikthise
4. Russell’s old blog, Waldchen Vom Philosophenweg, and sometimes his new one. It’s like he’s mad at the world for having a last name with only three characters.
5. Matt Yglesias
6. Blogenspiel
7. Ianqui
8. Crescat Sententia
9. Lawyers, Guns and Money. OK, I can spell all those words, but I can’t always remember what three things are in the blog title. Is it “Lawyers, Guns, and Steel” or “Lawyers, Guns and Scones”?
10. The Volokh Conspiracy. Can they buy a vowel?

Published by Laura

21 thoughts on “Top Ten Blogs That I Can’t Spell”

  2. “In Medias Res” means, “in the midst of things”; it’s a favorite phrase of mine. Regarding the old blog….well, I had weird visions of myself as some sort of Germanist philosopher back then. I’m pretty certain the phrase doesn’t even make good grammatical sense (not that that ever stopped aspiring German philosophers before).
    I never thought that I was mad about having such a boring last name, but then again, I do always use my full name when posting stuff, don’t I? Unconscious compensation, perhaps…

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  5. Um, speaking of grammar, Russell, shouldn’t that be “In medio rerum”? Otherwise it means something like “In the middle things” (which sounds kinda rude to me).

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  7. Having taught for many years and having been a “spelling coach” for the jr. high team, I believe spelling words correctly is a talent like music or math. You can improve with hard work but you won’t ever be perfect. Don’t sweat it. Use the spell checker.

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  8. Well, I wouldn’t want to make it too easy for people to find out my true identity, would I? If they can’t spell my pseudonym (speaking of hard words to spell…), then they can’t find me!

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  11. “I was just teasing, Russell.”
    Really, I didn’t take it as anything but. I couldn’t be cross at you! My blog names deserve some occasional mockery. (As do my blog post lengths, but that’s another story.)
    “Um, speaking of grammar, Russell, shouldn’t that be “In medio rerum”?”
    Beats me; I don’t know any Latin. “In medias res” is how I’ve mostly heard the phrase, though some have told me it should be a singular “media.” Maybe “in medio rerum” would be more accurate, though I’ve never heard that version before.

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  13. A difficult blog name is something shy bloggers can use to stay safe. It turns off enough people so that the party size is bearable. And anyone willing to plough through the sneezy-sounding letters deserves to read me…
    Though I’m just “a kidney of the snakes”. It was my handle on discussion forums and that’s why it became the blog name, too. The other one I seriously considered was Olive the Omnivorous Ovary.

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  14. Wow, Echidne, I never thought I’d find myself thinking, “You know, Echidne of the Snakes is much easier to say than the other option.” Impressive.

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  15. Regarding “in medias res”:
    I don’t know Latin either (sorry, Mr. Wharton! really!), but I do know Google. Thanks to Wikipedia, we find that the phrase comes lines 147-148 of Horace’s Ars Poetica, which Wikipedia translates as: “Nor does he begin the Trojan War from the double egg/but always he hurries to the action, and snatches the listener into the middle of things.” As the article also notes, it became a standard phrase, which is why the esteemed Dr. Fox heard it. (I certainly learned it in English class, not Latin class.)
    Wikipedia also gives us a link to the Latin text, which, indeed, reads “semper ad euentum festinat et in medias res” for line 148. And certainly we can assume that Horace knew his Latin grammar, I think we can take it as settled.
    By the way, awesome post.

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  16. …of course I meant “so I think we can take it as settled”. Naturally the Gods would make me make a grammatical mistake when I try to be snarky. But then, hubris is Greek, not Latin. Sigh.

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  17. All the Latin actually helps me remember most of those blog titles. It’s the blogs where people go by their personal names that I always flub!

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  20. The Latin looks odd because “res” is fifth declension feminine accusative plural, as is “medias.” The preposition “in” takes the accusative here, and contrary to our English-language instincts, in this Latin construction “media” is an adjective.
    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to find some tape for my glasses.

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