Hello ... hello? My goodness, there certainly are a lot of you out there. Can you hear me OK? Everybody check in at the front desk? Good. Welcome to Fritinancy, new readers! I know some of you have come from Twitter—hi there, tweeps!—and from StumbleUpon and Facebook and Digg and Delicious. Oh, look: there's the gang from Beancounters! And some of you have ventured in from the big cities: Kottke, AdWeek, the comments on BitchPh.D. And did I mention Twitter? Yes, I think I did. Sorry: it's been kind of a crazy 24 hours.
Where was I? Right.
So on Wednesday I wrote a post in which I had some fun with New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and her interview with the founders of Twitter. And, well, one thing led to another, and instead of a cozy little group that could fit in my backyard, I suddenly had a stadiumful of blog visitors and about ten times more comments than I receive in an average week. For the record, and because I know some of you are keeping score, this blog generally gets about 250 visitors a day, most of them through random (often very random) Google searches. Only about 30 are return visitors (or as I like to think of you, in the warmest and most affectionate of ways, "my base"). So when I get upward of 7,500 visitors in one 24-hour period, it sort of gets my attention. And when during the same period I pick up 80 new Twitter followers (Are they expecting me to lead them somewhere? What a responsibility!), I likewise take notice.
It's been very giddy and exciting, even though I know most of you are going to mosey on as soon as you discover that I do satire only occasionally, and most of the time I plod along, minding my own business—literally. The main menu here is names and brands and, you know, the quirks of the English language. I'm so sorry to disappoint, but that's how it goes. Yes, I've been known to branch out when I'm feeling, how you say, passionate about a subject. But mostly I keep my head down and do my job, hoping to catch the attention of a brilliant creative director or CEO willing to throw large sums of cash in my direction for creating wonderful, memorable, available names.
But gee, it sure has been a real treat having the rest of you here. A couple of points of clarification, and a couple of ground rules, and then I'll go back to alphabetizing your business cards. About the Dowd parody: Yes, I realize that MoDo was having a little fun herself. Yes, I think she generously shared the wit and charm of Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone. No, I don't think Twitter is the equivalent of the telephone, except in a general sense (both are vehicles for communication).
As for the ground rules: Numero uno, I can handle criticism, but I appreciate civil language. Numero two-o, if you want your comment published you have to leave a real e-mail address in the Comments form. Don't worry; I'm the only who will see it. But if it says "anonymous at podunk dot net" (for example), your comment will be read by me and me alone, and your shot at the spotlight will, sadly, be lost.
All right then! Before I leave, how're you doing with the snacks? Need any coffee, donuts, bacon, Tropicana? No? Hey, you've been swell. I mean it. The best! Come back soon, you hear?
Having read your blog since 2008, I relish the opportunity to point out that I'm oldschool to the new kids on the block.
Go Nancy go!
Posted by: Patrick | April 23, 2009 at 06:08 PM
I love your writing style. Very refreshing.
Posted by: Haila | April 23, 2009 at 06:22 PM
Came from kottke. Happy to be here!
Posted by: noc noc | April 23, 2009 at 11:08 PM
Warmest congrats from a member of your base. :-)
Posted by: Karen | April 24, 2009 at 06:21 AM
I am a new kid via Twitter. Just want to say I come from a long line of closet wordsmiths and am quite happy to follow a blog with occasional posts. People who love language tend to be interesting writers whatever the subject matter.
Posted by: Susan Lee | April 24, 2009 at 08:30 AM
Mmmmm, bacon.
Posted by: Mark Gunnion | April 24, 2009 at 09:16 AM
I used to do a political blog, wrote for years about policy and strategy and so on. 2 readers a day. Then I wrote a snarky review of a post 9/11 TV series and an episode that had a little anti-hippie subplot, and it was picked up by one of the very biggest political blogs and rode at the top of his page for half a day. I went from 2 readers to 20,000 overnight - the second night, 8000 extra - by the time a week had passed, back to 2. So, hey, Enjoy it! Of course, back in those days, I didn't have the option of picking up Tweep-followers.
BTW: After that, I tried to write several snarky reviews of TV series - never scored again.
But all props to Fritinancy - the greatest naming blog ever! It couldn't have happened to a nicer blog.
Your perennial anonymous poster,
Namer X
Posted by: Namer X | April 24, 2009 at 09:24 AM
I don't know that I've ever been called "base" before and been pleased by the designation. But I'm definitely a regular, so I guess that makes me one of the "30". Now if only we could appear in a film of that name with technologically enhanced physiques...
Posted by: Daniel Sternbergh | April 24, 2009 at 05:02 PM