What's in a name?

I’ve been trying to come up with a not-too-specific term suggesting the wide range of topics we hope to encourage here. Musings follow.

One model that comes to mind is the salons of 17th-18th century France.

Salon.com, of course, is too well-known to use the word, but perhaps we could refer to one of the famous salons of the era, such as the Hôtel de Rambouillet.

Alternatively, one of the terms used to refer to these salons was “ruelle”.

Ruelle, literally meaning “narrow street” or “lane”, designates the space between a bed and the wall in a bedroom; it was used commonly to designate the gatherings of the “précieuses”, the intellectual and literary circles that formed around women in the first half of the 17th century.

Ruelle.net is free. (Ruelle also appears in the Ruelle–Perron–Frobenius operator, which should please the math geeks among us.)

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Continuing from my last post, to keep it to one suggestion per reply,

Thinking of salons led me to the 17th-18th century English coffeehouses.

The description is perfect:

Topics discussed included politics and political scandals, daily gossip, fashion, current events, and debates surrounding philosophy and the natural sciences. Historians often associate English coffeehouses, during the 17th and 18th centuries, with the intellectual and cultural history of the Age of Enlightenment: they were an alternate sphere, supplementary to the university. Political groups frequently used coffeehouses as meeting places.

Reading down, I saw that Oxford coffeehouses were known as “penny universities”, and I thought “Aha”, but there are too many sites already using the phrase. Maybe we should bump it up to “nickel university” to allow for inflation. :slight_smile:

Old Slaughter’s Coffee House in London was a famous one, patronized by Samuel Johnson among others.
Oldslaughter’s.com is free, but that’s only one example, not necessarily the best.

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ClicketyClack.

  • alliterative
  • Prachett reference (I only sort-of know who that is, personally, but I know a lot of y’all like him)
  • onomatopoeia (like the place we all migrated from, but different enough from that to not draw comparisons)
  • sounds like typing/mouseclicks
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  • don’t talk back

(hey, it’s close enough :slight_smile: )

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SnickerSnark.com

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More musings: I have always liked Newton’s famous quote

I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.

So I submit for your consideration SmoothPebbles.place (or .club or other extension of your choice).

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The K&D sessions is one of my all time favorite albums.

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word up. still listen to it regularly. effortlessly made lounge sound cutting-edge where the default is more like smooth jazz. Thievery Corporation rode their coat-tails, imo.

Justin Warfield, the rapper in the vocal version, was never well-known, but was a favorite of my little college clique and is underrated as heck. he did one brilliant rap album, then pursued rock projects, unfortunately; he’s in a group called She Wants Revenge. Shame, 'cause he was a dope rapper and his subject matter was really unlike anyone else.

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I don’t tend to like compilations albums but the subtle things they did give the entire album a unifying sound and tone are as brilliant as they are subtle. Some of the same techniques were used on Tosca’s Opera.

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DarkSnark

and there would be a site beer!:

(Best viewed in Dark Mode)

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Not only is it generic enough for those who don’t get the Jabberwocky/Hunting of the Snark reference, it also serves as a warning.

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Like the one on BB “Who will be eaten first?”

Beware of the BBS dog!

(Dog To Be Determined)

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I’m going to have to try that beer before I agree to that name…

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Absolutely.

Cheers!

So you’ve sent it out to me already? You don’t even have my address!

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Well, just-in-case you don’t get it right away here’s where you can:

http://www.rabbitholebrewing.com/hunting-a-snark/

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@Akimbo_NOT: what’s that you say, a whole case?! So generous!

@MalevolentPixy: I have to admit, I’m kinda proud of that one. I think it actually works on a couple of different levels - aside from the Lewis Carroll allusion, I particularly like that it pretty well describes what we do here; laugh and critique. And it’s available in .com/org/net/etc flavors. If it doesn’t get used here, I might just have to grab it myself to use on some other project…

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It is a good quote.

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The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!

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Agreed. Cafe at the end of the world is damn good.

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