A Blog by any other name would smell as sweet???

When I first decided to begin my blog, the first decision I had to make was what to name it. I don’t know about other bloggers, but I actually put considerable thought into this issue. I wanted a name that was relatively short, possibly catchy, and mostly one that projected an image that I liked.

I considered a number of different possibilities, including:

• Diplomatic En-Corps…
• The Dipnomad…
• The World is my Oyster… 
• Worldwide Assailable… 

I liked “Diplomatic En-Corps” since this is indeed my encore career, but it ultimately did not make the cut. “The Dipnomad” I think might already be in use somewhere. “The World is my Oyster” might have been okay, if not very original – but a large number of people suffer from shellfish allergies, so nixed. I thought “Worldwide Assailable” was really pretty funny, but just a bit too negative for how I wanted to present myself. Thus, these names and some others did not survive the evaluation process. (Anyone out there in search of a blog name, feel free to claim any of these.)

I finally settled on New L’Attitudes because I liked the images associated with a new adventure, visiting and living in new places, and bringing a positive outlook to the entire adventure. I also enjoyed the homage to both Jimmy Buffet, one of my favorite singers, and to the book, “Blue Latitudes” by Tony Horwitz, that recounted and retraced the 18th century adventures of Captain Cook around the world. These twin themes seemed to be very well suited to my own new career and adventures. And of course, the corrupted spelling and flippant use of a vaguely French apostrophe appeals to my slightly mischievous side, while surely giving the L'Académie française apoplexy!

So sometimes the answer to “What’s in a name?” is bit more involved than some might think. My apologies to Mr. Shakespeare.

It's these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes  

Nothing remains quite the same  

With all of our running and all of our cunning 

If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane 

Jimmy Buffet, 1977