Sky-shouting, yes, but what to call it?

Old Man Yells At Cloud screenshot from "The Simpsons"Discussions with editors about what I’ll be doing in 2013 continue. One discussion is about the title of a new column that the editor in question has described as me shouting at the sky. I need your help.

“Shouting at the sky,” you ask?

We mean the analysis and opinion pieces that result from me cutting loose about something that’s pissing me off, or that quote people who are in the same frame of mind.

Here’s half a dozen near-random examples, chosen from a variety of mastheads so I don’t reveal where this column will appear.

I should also mention that this is for a technology-related masthead, and the topics will include that key focus that I’ve identified in my work: changing power relationships.

Yesterday I asked for suggestions on Twitter. Here’s what you’ve come up with so far.

Wearing onions on your belt, Old man yells at cloud, Canut’s corner, Stilgherrian shouting at the sky, I only had one, Get off my lawn! (with “Oh just shut up” and “Stil sallies forth” in the same tweet), Stil grumpy, You are all fucking idiots, Still glaring at the sky, Stil on the mount.

Now at about this point I expressed disappointment with the dull literalism of most of these suggestions. Things soon changed.

Nipples are great, just wish they’d stop falling off, Investors react negatively to Sky’s Cloud acquihire plans, Stilgherrian & the windmills, Fish, The column that doesn’t contain the word ‘cunt’, Voices from the Abyss, I’m making a list…”, Mutterings from the silicon wilderness (and in the same tweet, “Martinis and mainframes” and “Stilgherrian <rant mode>”), Still here, Tilting at windmills, Since you didn’t listen last time (and in the same tweet, “FFS” and “Unconvinced”).

None of these are leaping out at me yet.

The shorter ones are better, though. My name doesn’t need to be in the title because that’ll be in the byline, along with my photo. Nor does it have to contain any explicit technology mention, because that’s implicit in the column’s presence in a technology masthead.

Any further suggestions? Or comments on those so far?

[Update 21 January 2013: Thanks for all your suggestions. No need for any more. A title has been chosen and will be announced very soon.]

[Update 24 January 2013: And here’s the announcement.]

5 Replies to “Sky-shouting, yes, but what to call it?”

  1. Percussive Maintenance

    (The problem with crowdsourcing is everyone has 5c, sometimes even $1 worth to throw away)

  2. The full suggestion was “Stilgherrian [less than symbol]rant mode[greater than symbol]” , but the end bit got interpreted as a non existent HTML tag.

  3. @Gin_ev_ra: Indeed, as I tweeted at the time, “Honestly! Trying to get sense out of Twitter? You might as well herd wildebeest into your bathroom and try teaching them ballet!”

    @lukebunyip: Botheration. I knew WordPress would do that, and I even made a note to cross-check and fix it. And then I forgot to look at the note. It’s fixed now.

  4. …cloudburst (in some type of camelCase?)…has a pun or two, some idea of ranty-ness… hmmm…*ponders more*

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