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Jerry Seinfeld on the word "blog"
Jerry Seinfeld appeared on The Daily Show a few nights ago and, in the middle of what presumably was a promotion for Bee Movie, Seinfeld said this:
Is that the worst new word of the culture, "blog"? It's so unattractive. It’s like something that you spit up and it's, it has like, it congeals, and is, you know, and you kick dirt on it.
Seinfeld is good - maybe the best - at saying what everyone is already thinking, or experiencing, in broad cultural trends. And he hits it exactly right here. "Blog." Ugh.
I've always thought that blog sounded like the combination of "blah" and "bog." In other words, a boring swamp. Appropriately enough, in many cases.
Now, I don't pretend for a minute that this is going to change; the word, like the trend, is here to stay. But it's just unfortunate that we didn't get something nicer sounding.
Here's the Seinfeld clip, by the way:
The word fits. Many blogs are constructive and/or informational, and some are even artful and important. But since the majority are gasps or gushers of egotistical, unenlightened excess, and/or pollutants of the interactive environment, the ugly word is spot-on.
It's a derivation from weblog.
weblog
we blog
blog
Peter Merholz I think.
Not a hugely original thought from Seinfeld either...
July 2000, I said "for such a great idea, you think they would have thought up a less frumpy name!"
And Jon, they only pollute if you ingest.
I have no problem with "blog," but I am really hoping "bacn" doesn't catch on.