Name Change

The name has changed.

A rather bright reader from the UK suggested the name change. Ok, he thought it might induce more hits by appealing to the porn crowd, but nevertheless from obscure comes the sublime. I have no idea what that means, but it has a great ring to it.

This name change has got me thinking about the history of the Whiner. So join me for a brief walk back down memory lane.

In the mid 1980’s, I began writing this as a running commentary on a fantasy baseball league I was in. I was unsure what to call it at first and decided to spoof one of the more popular grocery store tabloids. Thus the 'National Ink Whiner' was born, a short jump from the "National Enquirer".

The first 'Whiners' were typed in an e-mail format and then mailed to folks, as well as, the whole Xerox machine thing. I wrote that version of the 'Whiner' for about five years.

I then used the writing style in other arenas such as spoofs and takeoffs for the company I worked for at the time. Some of it was actually sanctioned by Management. I enjoyed re-writing company announcements as one example.

My favorite was in the late 90’ when I stumbled across a memo describing the selling of plants in the soon to be vacant corporate headquarters in downtown LA. It took very little to substitute the word employees for plants and then to go on to devote a section to the sale of Human Resources folks.

I also got to write for company presentations with two very talented guys, Jeff and Ron. I don’t think to this day I have ever enjoyed working more with two people on a project.

Oddly enough, during the period of writing in the late 80’s, I had a boss whose wife was actually a legitimate writer. She described my writing as “Gorilla Journalism” and "trash". Funny how life is a circle, upon our return to this area a few years back, I got a call from a friend who was in the old baseball league. He commented that my former boss, who was now a member of afore mentioned league, was wondering if I would be writing the "Whiner" again. I guess he didn’t share his wife’s views.

So then the 'Whiner' came back as the "Ink Whiner" and then over time just the "Whiner".

I like this new name. Mostly because I love the Naked Ape, 1967 book on the human condition. http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/12/newsid_3116000/3116329.stm

Thanks, Jeff, great idea.