May 06, 2002

No one but me liked the original name of this site, The Flaming Penis. But everyone was wrong, and I was right. It's a great name, and not only because it's easy to remember.
      The penis of the name symbolized fertility and comedy. The image of a flaming penis also stood for the absurdity of the writer's ego, which may shed light despite its absurdity. The site's logo pictured a blue penis, a color meant to indicate that this was not the penis of any particular man, but rather an über-penis, a Krishna penis.
      This was all blazingly clear to me, but everyone else saw only a dirty joke. I found myself spending too much time explaining it. Worse, it was making some people reluctant to work with me. The Flaming Penis soon became more trouble than it was worth.
      I chose the name The Blue Hammer to provide continuity with the original name. The hammer is a sublimated penis, with the flames of the Flaming Penis preserved in the logo. Still, I have never liked the new name, and always feel vaguely embarrassed when I speak it out loud. It's such a candyass name, so despicably tasteful, so NPR. It sounds like the name of a college literary magazine or something.
      If I had my druthers, the site would be called deadeye.com, a name both musical and bulletproof. But there's already some record label with the name. Besides, you shouldn't spend too much time thinking about this sort of thing. After people get used to your name, they won't think twice about it anyway. The first time you heard the name Salon, you probably thought, "Jesus, that's pretentious!" But now it doesn't even register. It's all like, "did you see that article in Salon? Salon this and Salon that, Salon gave me a lift home, Salon is in a pissy mood today."

If you're interested, please take a moment to check out the original Flaming Penis site.