Monday, November 30, 2009

How I Met Your Iconoclast



Ruth Mowry, who runs the
best damned blog on Planet
Earth
, keeps insisting she
wants to know how people name their blogs. At one point, she was promising bags of Skittles or some such reward, but fell victim to the "all shall have prizes" syndrome. So what's my motivation? Being acknowledged by the Zen goddess who has something like 320 regular visitors, unlike this backwater. And she paid me such a nice compliment (no, I won't point it out, go and read her blog, for cryin' out loud! You might learn something!), that histories were the least I could share.

This blog's URL is impossible to spell, but its genesis should be obvious. Every possible combination of "iconoclast" has been taken, both within Blogger and WordPress, and also as an independent domain. That's because everyone claims to be an iconoclast, now that Prospect magazine has officially declared eclecticism the new cool (thanks John Voelcker).

Feh. Buncha poseurs. You don't know what eclecticism is, unless you've been grooving out to screeching vacuum cleaners and detuned accordions making a godforsaken racket, only to have a loved one say "You call that music?" Well, yeah. I save my mailing envelopes from Adris Hoyos, since she was the first to proudly offer brutal noise and ask, "What was music?" Now, that, my friends, is iconoclasm.

But how to differentiate? By being a grumpy old man! Calling oneself "iconoclastic curmudgeon" or "curmudgeonly iconoclast" doesn't cut it, it has to be Iconocurmudgeonclast. Thus was a blog born. Where's my cane? And better yet, Ruth, where's my Skittles?

11 comments:

Ruth said...

You, my dear friend, deserve Skittles.

You should definitely have gotten the original doman for iconoclast, where were you? But I know, and you know, and anyway I like your made up Iconocurmudgeonclast, it is so you.

Aw shucks, I love being called a Zen goddess! That's a first (and I hope not last).

I am oh so glad you found synch-ro-ni-zing one day looking for Grand Ledge pics, I think? It's awesome that the boy I said "hi" to walking by my house on his way home from school became such a dear friend - I won't say cyber friend since we actually know each other for real!

And oh, I've been meaning to tell you, I really LOVE how you embrace Grand Ledge. I don't know anyone else outside of Paris lovers who do that so well.

Thank you for participating!

Ballyhoo!

Loring Wirbel said...

Hmm, maybe I should have said Rumi goddess....

Paris, Grand Ledge, Paris, Grand Ledge - the deciding factor is that no one in the Paris municipal government ever gave me a "I <3 Paris" T-shirt, where someone in GL municipal government (OK, my sister) gave me a "You're Gonna <3 Grand Ledge" construction helmet. See how easily I am bought off?

Speaking of bought off, the different bribery rates for regular, Tropical Fruit, or Sour Patch Skittles would make for an interesting essay one day.

Blog on mightily, dear Ruth!

kevin said...

But Loring, you were an
iconocurmudgeonclast at 20.

Good to see you still are.

Any comments on the nice new Viet Nam we are creating for ourselves?

And why isn't Henry Kissinger in the War Crimes Docket along with that old Russian?

Kevin

Loring Wirbel said...

Kev - Yay! We're having a vigil at 5 pm today in Colo Springs, be there or be square. Seems like we've been through this movie before, as in many times.

Hey, if you're on Facebook, Renee Girard, April Julian Dobbs and Hilary Acton are on, been reliving some Arizona days....

Barry said...

Ruth's offering Skittles?

If I'd known that I would have come up with a better explanation of my blogs name.

Or maybe a better name for my blog.

I agree with you about Ruth's blog being the best, by the way.

Loring Wirbel said...

It's a joke about using Skittles as a global currency.

BTW, I need to take this time to say I think you have had many brave and humorous posts of late. Good luck to you, Barry, and I know you will face every part of the journey with joy and virtual tea.

Unknown said...

Iconocurmudgeonclast has more letters than the number of Skittles per bag, I'm sure. Your story is straight from the heart! I enjoyed it. Thanks for the post, sir! =D

Loring Wirbel said...

Yep, Linda, I always try for straight from the heart. My wife always jokes (complains?) that I'm the only person she knows that can get passionate about interest rates, indigenous tribes of Micronesia no one's heard of, or any other topic that happens to come around.

CottageGirl said...

I love your style of writing! Great story ...

shoreacres said...

So. For months now I've been reading your comments at Ruth's and thinking.... well, not thinking much of anything, but feeling a vague urge to come visit.
You know how that goes.

Happily, with her little non-competitive, awardless invitation to participate in a disguised meme, Ruth herself finally pushed me over the edge, and here I am. I'll be back, for sure.

I'm one of those aspiring writer types. I've got the vocabulary, spelling and subjuntive clauses down, but confident voice is still an issue. One of the best ways to nurture that is to hang around with folks who are speaking with honest, direct voices.

Kind of like an icono-curmudgeon-clast.

Loring Wirbel said...

shoreacres, I don't believe in the word "aspiring." You're already a writer! Blogs democratize things so much...