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I’ve gotten a few things from publishers because of the blog and the last one was, actually, labelled similarly.
What makes your label better than mine is that your blog name looks like it belongs in an address. For a minute, until I scrolled down, I thought that you’d actually gotten delivered a package addressed only to “The Edge of the American West.” That would have been extraordinary.
“And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in and mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.”
Doesn’t this mean that blogs aren’t countercultural or anti-institutional or whatever anymore? Or, as the sages once said, there’s nothing left that won’t cross over.
I think we crossed that line when I added “SEK’s blogs have been featured on C-Span’s Washington Insider” to my CV this afternoon. Wait—who said what now?
This happened to me, in that a press sent me a review book at my real address under my real name with my real-name blog address on it, and it made me feel weird.
Really, “EDGE OF THE AMERICAN WEST” should have been the last line of the address, or if it was sent internationally the second-to-last line. Addresses get more specific from the bottom to the top, after all, and “Davis” and even “California” are much more specific than “edge of the american west”.
“Davis” and even “California” are much more specific than “edge of the american west”. As are “Earth”, “Solar System” and “Milky Way.” It’s a really big thing, cyberspace.
“It said, Eric Rauchway; University of California; Davis; Yolo County; California; The Edge of the American West; United States of America; continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; The Universe; the mind of God – that’s what it said on the envelope. And the postman brought it just the same.”
28 comments
February 17, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Standpipe Bridgeplate
We academic presses cannot afford much longer our staid and stodgy reputations. We must get “hep” to the “blogs”.
February 17, 2009 at 4:49 pm
eric
Let me tweet you on the Facebook.
February 17, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Josh
Given that it was on an address label, shouldn’t it really have read “https://edgeofthewest.wordpress.com”?
February 17, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Steve Balboni
You are so busted. This is “lipstick on the collar” territory my friend.
Seriously, that’s really amusing.
February 17, 2009 at 5:03 pm
Standpipe Bridgeplate
You should write back, and tell them you’ve got something for next month that’ll really frost their bing-bong.
February 17, 2009 at 5:06 pm
andrew
I think you can get ISSN numbers for blogs.
February 17, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Jason B.
Am I the only one who thinks that looks like a prescription label?
February 17, 2009 at 5:16 pm
Jonathan Dresner
I’ve gotten a few things from publishers because of the blog and the last one was, actually, labelled similarly.
What makes your label better than mine is that your blog name looks like it belongs in an address. For a minute, until I scrolled down, I thought that you’d actually gotten delivered a package addressed only to “The Edge of the American West.” That would have been extraordinary.
February 17, 2009 at 5:39 pm
dana
I like the idea that the blog has a physical location.
Or that it’s become your epithet.
February 17, 2009 at 6:59 pm
Cosma
“And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in and mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave.”
February 17, 2009 at 7:02 pm
rja
Doesn’t this mean that blogs aren’t countercultural or anti-institutional or whatever anymore? Or, as the sages once said, there’s nothing left that won’t cross over.
February 17, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Bitchphd
Hmph.
February 17, 2009 at 7:19 pm
SEK
I think we crossed that line when I added “SEK’s blogs have been featured on C-Span’s Washington Insider” to my CV this afternoon. Wait—who said what now?
February 17, 2009 at 7:43 pm
herbert browne
“hmph” indeed… I wouldn’t be looking forward to a label emblazoned
“BITCH*PHD” myself… even if I deserved it… ^..^
February 17, 2009 at 8:19 pm
Sifu Tweety
Cosma: so, wait, when does Eric get fucked up on Adrenochrome?
February 17, 2009 at 8:32 pm
urbino
So you’re saying you don’t have a Ph.D., herbert?
February 17, 2009 at 8:33 pm
urbino
Oxford is modernizing in many ways. The Bodleian recently hired a woman librarian, the first in its 600-odd year history.
February 17, 2009 at 8:59 pm
A White Bear
This happened to me, in that a press sent me a review book at my real address under my real name with my real-name blog address on it, and it made me feel weird.
February 17, 2009 at 9:00 pm
ben
Really, “EDGE OF THE AMERICAN WEST” should have been the last line of the address, or if it was sent internationally the second-to-last line. Addresses get more specific from the bottom to the top, after all, and “Davis” and even “California” are much more specific than “edge of the american west”.
February 18, 2009 at 5:04 am
Michael Turner
There’s always the other edge of the American West: The Left Bank of the Mississippi. Which would also be a fine name for a blog, wouldn’t it?
February 18, 2009 at 5:08 am
kid bitzer
i went to one of those rubicons once. i was hoping to get leonard nimoy’s autograph. turned out i was the only one who went. what a rube!
February 18, 2009 at 5:10 am
drip
“Davis” and even “California” are much more specific than “edge of the american west”. As are “Earth”, “Solar System” and “Milky Way.” It’s a really big thing, cyberspace.
February 18, 2009 at 6:57 am
Russell Belding
“It said, Eric Rauchway; University of California; Davis; Yolo County; California; The Edge of the American West; United States of America; continent of North America; Western Hemisphere; the Earth; the Solar System; The Universe; the mind of God – that’s what it said on the envelope. And the postman brought it just the same.”
February 18, 2009 at 4:17 pm
andrew
There’s a Rubicon River in Desolation Wilderness in California. So the Oxford mail must have crossed it on the way to Davis.
February 18, 2009 at 5:48 pm
urbino
There’s always the other edge of the American West: The Left Bank of the Mississippi.
I used to inhabit that edge, but, having crossed the Rubissippi, I now inhabit, I guess, the edge of the American East.
February 20, 2009 at 11:31 am
Fix It For Profit » Blog Archive » Corporate Offices Have Relocated, Apparently
[…] least Eric Rauchway’s mail suggests that he has a real job. Does Oxford know something I […]
February 24, 2009 at 11:41 am
davenoon
Wow, that’s weird — how does one of my LGM posts wind up appearing (unattributed) on a site called “Fix it for Profit?”
February 24, 2009 at 11:42 am
ari
The internet has assimilated you, apparently.