THE GAME OF THE NAME: SLIFR'S DAYS NUMBERED?

I find myself at a bit of a crossroads here at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule, and the crux of the biscuit, as Mr. Zappa once put it, is the name I chose for this unassuming enterprise when I first logged on back in November 2004. At that point I envisioned SLIFR as a place where I would entertain my dual interests-- movies and baseball. In fact, I hoped by writing more about my favorite sport that I would somehow learn more about it, soak up more of its intricacies, its strategy, its history, and consequently learn how to write about it intelligently and with feeling. So it made sense to me to find a name that would combine those interests uniquely and memorably.

The first name I chose and posted under (for two whole posts, as I recall) was the woefully inadequate The Good, The Bad and the Dodgers, which didn't evoke the movies very strongly, and seemed to imply something about the quality of the Dodgers (which, unfortunately, was borne out during the agonizing season in 2005 that was to follow) that made me uncomfortable. I finally settled on SLIFR, which twinned the obsessions in an intriguing (to some, inexplicable) way. But as the 2006 season began to loom ever closer on the horizon, and even as far back as the 2005 off-season and the winter trades, I began to realize that my muse for baseball writing, such as it was, was no longer there. I still follow baseball, and the Dodgers, as enthusiastically as I ever have, but it has become clear to me over the past few months that baseball really has no major role to play in what I want to continue to do with this blog.

So, basically, I'm staring down the possibility of a major name change. Good old SLIFR's days may be numbered, I'm afraid, as half of the title has been rendered close to irrelevant.(I'm also about to embark on a serious change of formatting for the site, but more on that later.)

I've tossed around a couple of titles that I like, and many that I don't, and I'll keep them to myself for now. What I'm hoping is to enlist the help of any of you readers out there who might have a good idea, gleaned from your familiarity with this blog or perhaps just your own cleverness and intuition, of what might be the best choice for renaming this blog. So I now humbly solicit your suggestions in the hope of coming up with a really good title that grabs attention and suggests, either plainly or obliquely, what typically goes on at this address.

"So your blog gets a new title, D.C., but what," you might ask, "is in it for me?" Excellent question. And I think I have an excellent answer. I propose to keep track of everyone who submits a serious suggestion, and at such time as I decide on a name, if I pick yours you'll get the Criterion DVD of your choice (sticker price $39.95 or less, please!) to show for your efforst on my behalf.

And if I should, after all the submissions, decide on one of my own, I will draw a name randomly from a hat containing the names of all who made serious suggestions and that person whose name comes up will get the Criterion DVD.

If this sounds like something you'd like to try, please register your suggestion in the comments column of this post. The contest is open-ended-- it'll conclude when I either see, in the comments or in a fevered vision in my head, the winning name. That could happen tomorrow, and it could happen two months from now. (Gee, I hope it's not two months from now.) But I promise to keep you up to date, however it plays out. Thanks in advance for taking the time. I'm looking forward to all your great ideas!

UPDATE: 9:09 a.m. 7/19/06 Flickhead and Manaotupapau have suggested that I stick with the tried, true and established, and they make a good argument for it. I should have included that option in my original post, but since I didn't last night, I'm doing so now. And also, since I already made the DVD offer, if I should decide to stay with SLIFR after all I will transfer the DVD contest to a drawing among those who have submitted answers to Professor Kelp's Chemistry Test instead. Cheers!