Litterbugs, Part 7: Trash Talk

One of the themes running through this blog is litter and trash.

So far there have been six posts about this stuff, in one form or another. The title of each is prefixed by the word "Litterbugs."

I've begun cross-posting these entries. Henceforth they will appear both here, and on a blog by themselves. Blogger, the commercial site on which "Lung" resides, allows you multiple blogs.

The new blog is called Trash Talk.

Another roadside attraction

I had a little trouble establishing the Trash Talk URL. I wanted it to be memorable – that is, easy to remember. My first choice, litter.blogspot.com, was already taken. (The blog name and its URL don't necessarily have to match.)

So I tried "litterbug.blogspot.com." That too was in use. I pluralized it to "litterbugs." Same story.

Then I got clever and tried litterature, litterate, and litterati. Even the bad puns were already taken!

I tried trashtalk and talkingtrash. Both in use.

Finally I tried litter101. Jackpot!

So litter101.blogspot.com it is.

Here's the kicker. I got curious about all of those unavailable URLs. So I typed in "litter.blogspot.com" and found a site that had not been updated since 2003! This blog had nothing to do with litter or the environment. Instead it consisted of the scribblings of some techno-dweeb who fights with his wife a lot.

The site with "litterate" in the URL had not been updated since 2006. Same with "Litterati." litterbugs.blogspot.com had not been posted to since 2005, while both trashtalk.blogspot.com and talkingtrash.blogspot.com haven't been used since way back in 2003! (The talkingtrash blog consists, in toto, of three words: "The inaugural post." Its final post, too.)

But the oldest of these sites, each of which is abandoned but has a URL I covet, dates back to 2002. This would be litterature.blogspot.com. It is written in French, apparently out of Quebec. Lo and behold, "littérature" is, literally, "literature" in French – which pig-ignorant, mono-cultural moi did not previously know.