I've been asked a bunch of times why this blog is called "Toothpick Labeling." I should really give credit where it's due finally and explain that it comes from a scene in the influential Richard Linklater film Slacker, in which a man ("Happy-Go-Lucky Guy") wanders into a diner and encounters an emotionally disturbed woman ("Traumatized Yacht Owner") muttering to herself:
TRAUMATIZED YACHT OWNER
...you should, you should, you, you should never traumatize a woman sexually--I should know, I'm a medical doctor. You should never, traumatize, you should never name things in order...
CRANKY COOK
Hey, cool it down over here.
The Happy-Go-Lucky Guy is perplexed by this all but just sits there. He quietly leans over to observe the lady until she once again focuses her attention on him.
TRAUMATIZED YACHT OWNER
...Toothpicks, toothpicks, toothpick labeling...
It's a bit of dialogue that has long captured my imagination, though admittedly, I'd always sort of glossed over the psychological import of this woman's damaged disposition. I'd rather been drawn by the obsessive quality of the concept of the labeling of toothpicks. How does one label a toothpick, anyway? It seems a brain-breaking exercise destined for failure. The idea of it reflects the myopic detail-orientation of a personal blog, at least one that I would author, and when it came time for me to begin my writings at Blogger after making my online journaling home at Diaryland for three years, it rose somehow from the deep reaches of my neocortex as a suitable name for the new venture. I think it's turned out to be rather apt.
1 comment:
Darling, thank you for explaining to the uninitiated (that's you 20-somethings!). Such a brilliant name. Glad you are spreading the word about it!
~ 'Ube'
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