The Name Game

It was a bit of a trick coming up with the name for this blog. At first I used an alliteration on the nickname I use most frequently on the web, but it didn't really capture the image I wanted to project. Also, I wasn't sure that I wanted to publicly connect the web between internet alias, personal profile and professional life. I'm a firm believer that there ought to be separation between private life and public life. I just haven't figured out what the line should be, and how to actually go about protecting the integrity of a line drawn arbitrarily in the sand.



Then I switched to the current name "Here's Jonny: There Goes the Netbourhood." I've used the Here's Jonny bit for like a decade, which means I'm old. However, I'm not old enough to have watched Johnny Carson, more of a Homer Simpson recreates the Shining. "Shhhh do you want to get sued?" It rolls off the tongue as a great intro; who am I to argue with TV?

The web address adds to the fun, with the extra T. "There's Jonny!" Obviously someone already thought to use "Here's Jonny." C'est la vie.

The second half I thought would be a fun joke. Here I am, your bloggerty value is going to decrease faster than your property value. I thought I was cleverly coining a new expression by switching 'neighbourhood' to 'netbourhood.' I was wrong and entirely unoriginal. I'm sticking with it anyway.

And if I change my mind, well I can always just change the name again.

Now my professional blog is proving more difficult to name. I've started the revamp of my professional website, and the only thing I have left to do is turn a lot of old papers and powerpoints into PDFs so that I can post them to my page. Might as well get stuff out there; it's not like I have to re-read any of it to convert the file types!

The only other internet plan I have is to create a professional blog, but a suitable name isn't rolling off my tongue. I'm mesmerized by the term 'boffin' right now. 'Boffin' is a name that was given to, perhaps self-inflicted, some of the early radar pioneers at Bawdsey Research Station. I've come across it in Dr. Rennie Whitehead's internet autobiography entitled "Memoirs of a Boffin." He's not exactly a central figure in either the history of radar or the history of defence research in Canada, he's certainly significant to both and an invaluable resource thanks to the accessible memoirs, but what caught me was his use of 'boffin.' Wikipedia tells me that 'boffin' used to denote revered science and technology wizards, and now it is mostly just an insult. Again, I like it. 'Boffin' describes my academic and professional interest in military research and development from the Second World War to the end of the Cold War; a period of diminishing faith in science and technology (to over-generalize).

The problem I'm having is that 'Boffins' as a title is misleading. I'm not a boffin, and I'm certainly not more than one person, let alone more than one boffin. My interest in boffins extends beyond just the men and women who worked in science, technology and medicine, I'm also interested in the bureaucrats, soldiers and politicians who worked alongside the boffins. Hence the reason I've toyed with names like

1. Between Boffins and Bureaucrats
2. Boffins, Wonks, Hacks and Wags

I also thought, all by myself, that 'Boffinology' would be brilliant at capturing the essence of boffin and my separation from it. Turns out all my original phrases have been patented by at least two other people (on the internet). So here I am with no fantastic name for my professional blog, using my personal blog to try generate some buzz and ideas. Right now the leading candidate is:

Boffins and Cold Warriors

My concern here is that I'm going to need an academic subtitle to clarify.

Boffins and Cold Warriors: A Blog by Jonathan Turner about Science, Technology and Medicine during the Cold War (and how this is relevant to the here and now)

Academics and lawyers seem to have a love affair with using lots of words to say simple things in a way that is both confusing and employs multiple linguistic fail safes so that once you navigate the nuances you realize that you've probably lost brain cells in the process and not really learned anything. You're also out thousands of dollars for your trouble.

The quest for a suitable name continues; suggestions are welcome!