The blog, or web-log, began as a way for pioneering web-surfers to tell each other what was out there. Remember those days? When "surfing the Internet" was a hobby the same way that "surfing the ocean" is? When you didn't go on-line just to check your mail, pay your bills, look up directions, and then get off again? You remember. Well even back then there were far more websites than a single person could get through, so people began to keep records of where they went, with commentary about what other people might find if they were to go there themselves.
This is not so unusual, pioneers of all sorts leave informative signs for each other, like, "water three miles that way," "don't eat this," and "my phone number is 212-492-0028, give me a call, let's do lunch!" But the most clear predecessor to the blog is a a ship's log, which if we followed the construction of 'web log' to 'blog' should be called a 'pslog' but which I, for aesthetic or phonotactictal reasons prefer to call a 'shlog.' Think of it. The shlog was used to record where you had been each day, what you found there, and what you thought of it, so that other travelers could benefit from your experience. Even more eerily similar to today's blogs was the underlying motive of shloggers to satisfy their investors and to get their names out there. Think Columbus would really have been so insistent that he had found India had it not been a sure fire way to gain international fame and satisfy his royal investors?
What other kinds of logs are there? My brother Jesse suggests having a meal-log or 'mlog.' Even better, let's call it a 'flog' for 'food-log.' He likes to take photos of the meals he makes, because "In Brooklyn we take pride in our food-stuffs." Well okay, Jess, two can play that game -- here's a photo of my first meal at my new place.
Now we're cooking with gas!
1 comment:
Hi Ez,
I enjoyed your account of the shlogs, and particularly liked the picture of your first flog. I'm glad you're eating well.
With love,
Your Mother :-)
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