Mimicry is not the highest form of flattery, despite what mother told me.
Imagine my delight at discovering, when trying to open a new Mirth gmail account, that several variations of my website’s name were already taken!
Years ago, when I registered the domain name, I spent endless hours researching possible titles. Everything good was already taken (forever the lament of the late bloomer). The only route to originality was settling for a name that was impossible to spell or remember.
I found one reference to a humorous Christmas newspaper article from 2008 or so, entitled Frankincense and Mirth. I found an old expired website that had never been used, whose function was a mystery. I found an article on the mirth-enhancing qualities of frankincense. And I found an old church program advertising a kid’s production of “Gold, Frankincense and Mirth.” I was free and clear!
I did have to commit the proper placing of the letters C and S to memory.
Or try to.
But I had secured my place in the world!
I did not trademark the name; a vanity blog hardly merits that. I’ve got no assets, after all (she wrote, somewhat wistfully and without irony, reflecting for a moment upon every aspect of her life and person).
Who but me needs an email address called frankincenseandmirth?
Some woman in Australia who’s huckstering essential oils, as it turns out. She’s got a Facebook page. She’s got a logo. She’s got a doTerra business. She’s got a gmail account. And she’s got my goddamned name.
In a rare moment of clarity and peace, I decided that we can surely co-exist in our separate niches halfway around the world.
So I’ll go order some frankincense oil from my local doTerra rep. Maybe you can indeed put mirth in a jar.
Someone did the same thing with “The Secret Life of Guinea Pigs” (http://secretguinea.blogspot.com) — a very nice and very talented artist in South Africa tried the name on Blogspot, and failing that got “Secret Lives of Guinea Pigs”. I contacted, congratulated on her wonderful art, and made a lot about her page while throwing my own blog title out there numerous times. The hint was not taken, and she is still drawing lovely and cute pictures, while my own has gone seven years without an update.
“You were there first” is something my family counsels in times of stress, whether it be a broken toe or a case of the blues. The implication is that your moral superiority and innate fortitude will see you through the vagaries of fate and injustice. Sounds good on paper, doesn’t it? You ought to post an update, to assert your continuing dominance. How do guinea pigs handle that??
Heh! When GPs want to outdo each other, they try to stick their noses up as high as possible, to be taller than the others. With three boys in the cage, we saw this a lot.