Datebook: Saturday, August 19th ~ 2006

The first thing I want to do is thank all you who have taken the time to read these utterances and to those of you who have written to me. I would like to respond personally but my email address has my name in it. I have to get one of those exciting names like, LetzbringsXeyBacK2o’r40 or s8nHOtmaMa. Because I do think “not knowing” is better or else it might be a bit like looking behind the curtain in “Wizard of Oz.”

So, with all of my free time I have started working on my book again. I have given it a working title of “Oxymoron” and it is like early Janet Evanovitch-Sarah Strohmeyer-Laura Lippman in style. The working title is (of course) because everything in my life seems to contradict each other.

I want a convertible Volvo—the safest car without a top.

I am on a diet but I gain weight.

I teach Journalism yet we don’t put out a newspaper.

I teach English yet my students don’t read.

My garden has tomatoes that won’t turn red.

I have a pool but I can’t swim

So I think you see that I had inspiration in coming up with the title. In reality however, publishers and editors select the title. There is apparently an applied business approach to this. They often even “suggest” that authors change their name or use pen names. The reasoning is, if your name is Scotty King for example, your books will be shelved next to Stephen King and may entice readers (insert buyers) to pick your book also. Picking it up is half the battle. Then the cover and title then have to “stick”. What works are titles of one, two, or three words, typically nouns.

Catherine Coulter for example probably had a working title for one of her books called “My Stepfather Was Murdered By A Psycho”. Research and Development put a big X across that because this brings the whole connotations of Bates Motel/shower stabbing so they came up with “Blow Out” instead. This title has no real connection to the book except how you feel at the end, when you can let out the breath you have been holding. Pretty clever.

So, how does this relate to skating, because unless you haven’t admitted it yet, everything in our lives is tied to some cord that goes back to that central source?

Well, I think it shows we have put these teams together a bit haphazardly.

We really need to heed the advice of the experts.

I think in the future other things need to be considered in try-outs.

It shouldn’t just be about if the two can skate, and with each other. It shouldn’t just be about who can move for one part of the country to another. It shouldn’t just be about who will pay.

We need to look at the names. And how they sound over the public address system as they are announced across a clean sheet of smooth ice.

I saw several trends this year at Lake Placid.

Many teams have alliteration-or their names start with the same letter. This is good unless it is overdone and too many teams are using this concept and then they slide into being called one of the “alphabet teams.”

Some teams have a play on words as their initials stand for other things. This is good as long as the association is strong and not for something embarrassing, like a hemorrhoid cream.

Some teams have the same number of syllables to each name so there is a natural cadence to the sound and no one gets more air time. Siblings and married couples get this automatically by sharing the same last name, probably even earns an extra 1.0 points on the “relates to each other” point scale.

So, I think we must consider that one partner may have to change his/her name at the very beginning, or add a middle name, to take advantage of this concept of marketing for success.

Perhaps they can still train under their “working names.”

Mombo #9