By any other name…

June 28, 2014

With apologies to my editor, I will share with you a funny thing that happened to me today. I met a woman (Hi, Mary!)…. well, re-met her actually, since we’ve crossed paths a few times before… but in any case, she asked me if I did a blog. And I said no. (Sorry, Rob.)

After a few more words of conversation, it dawned on me that THIS is called a blog so yes, in fact, I do a blog. I quickly scrambled to validate her understanding that I am the writer to whom she was referring. Sigh…. just another thump upside the head that made me wonder if I forgot my vitamin this morning, or if my stars had failed to align.

In my own defense, I have to say that when Rob and I agreed that I should write for the Mason County Press, I was a “columnist.”

Dictionary.com lists among its definitions for “column”:

a regular feature or series of articles in a newspaper, magazine, or the like, usually having a readily identifiable heading and the byline of the writer or editor, that reports or comments upon a particular field of interest….

See? “Moonlighting by Judy Cools.” Identifiable heading and a by-line: it’s a column. Having been a columnist in other venues, and a blogger never before, “columnist” is what seems to stick with me. I suppose in fairness, I have to say that Rob changed us to “Bloggers” within a day or two and that was well over two years ago, but I guess that part didn’t stick in my head.

Part of the issue here is that I think of blogs as being more personal – even bordering on intimate – more so than what I allow for most of my writing. I think of blogs as perhaps interactive as well, with others joining in the discussions, bouncing ideas around, challenging the assertions made, and sharing related experiences. I imagine something more like a thread you’d find on Facebook. That just doesn’t happen here at Moonlighting.

Well, I went to the internet to see what definitions there are for blogs, allowing that I could have a wrong impression. Maybe I’m having a simple semantic issue. Here, from the Urban Dictionary, is the first one I found:

BLOG n. Short for weblog.

A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life. Consists of such riveting entries as “homework sucks” and “I slept until noon today.”

Yes, now we have it – justification that an internet columnist is the same as a blogger! And a column by any other name will be as sweet.

Kudos, complaints, or conversation? Moonlighting19@yahoo.com