One more to the 27.2 million

I had always known in a vague sort of way that many blogs have poor readership. But till yesterday I had no clue as to how many constitutes "many" and how "poor" is their readership.

It seems 26.9 million of the 27.2 million blogs in existence don't have any readers. I came across this not-encouraging statistic just before registering mine yesterday.

I am determined to make my blog part of the elite list of blogs that has readers. As a major step, I intend to ask my closest relatives and friends to take a look at it.

Having made up my mind, the first major question was: what to name it? My broad plan was to find an appropriate synonym for words like 'thought' or 'views' or something to that effect.

A quick thesaurus check made me realise that my senior bloggers have already employed some of the better words (Why should I have assumed that 27.2 million bloggers wouldn't have checked free resources on the Net!).

Some of the other impressive options like Instant Kaapi, Idli Sambar and Coffee House (my friend Ramanth's blog) have already been used up.

Irritated at not finding an appropriate word at a vital time (surely not the first time in my life), I looked around my room - a sign that all's not well.

Thankfully, my eye spotted P. G. Wodehouse's novel 'Something Fresh'. There were no second thoughts; this was the title.

Having put that as the blog title, I would like to assure 'readers' that my posts more often than not wouldn't adhere to what the title stands for.

For me, 'Something Fresh' sounds good. Nothing more than that.

But to justify the title at least in this blog, I will quote a part of Wodehouse's preface for the novel. Typically Wodehousian, if there's such a usage, the passage tells us why George Horace Lorimer, the editor of Saturday Evening Post, agreed to publish 'Something Fresh.'

"I have always had the idea that Lorimer must have been put in a receptive mood the moment he saw the title page. My pulp magazine stories had been by 'P. G. Wodehouse', but 'Something Fresh' was the work of: Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, and I am convinced that that was what put it over.

A writer in America at that time who went about without three names was practically going around naked. Those were the days of Richard Harding Davis, of James Warner Bellah, of MargaretCulkin Banning ... Naturally, a level-headed editor like Lorimer was not going to let a Pelham Grenville Wodehouse get away from him.

If you ask me to tell you frankly if I like the names Pelham Grenville, I must confess that I do not. I have my dark moods when they seem to me about as low as you can get. At the font I remember protesting vigorously when the clergyman uttered them, but he stuck to his point. 'Be that as it may,' he said firmly, having waited for a lull. 'I name thee Pelham Grenville.'

Apparently I was called after a godfather, and not a thing to show for it except a small silver mug which I lost in 1897. I little knew how the frightful label was going to pay off thirty-four years later."

What a writer!