SHOCKING STUFF!

Dunno. :-/ ~It's a maze for rats to try, it's a race for rats to die.~

On the subject of rats; the infamous football manager Tommy Docherty once said 'It's a rat's race and only the rats are winning.' Mind you he also said about the winger John Robertson 'actually, you're slower than you look.' John Robertson then helped him to 2 European cups.

Aye, and Thomas Jefferson said, "For Heaven's sake discard the monstrous wig which makes the English judges look like rats peeping through bunches of oakum” ~It's a maze for rats to try, it's a race for rats to die.~

keleph, If you look into the trade journals of publishers, you will find your answers. Not only are titles carefully considered, so are the color of the book jackets for novels, and any art work on them.There is also negotiated jockeying for eye level placement on Book store shelves.Successful marketing is a big part of a work's success. Similarly, songs, plays and other works carefully consider the phycological implications and allure of their titles. It is all about "baiting the hook."After a reader "bites" the content has to hold them. Sometimes an esoteric title can be explained in the body a successful work and become part of the piece's allure.But usually you have to be dead and successful first for that to work. Newspapers do the same. Headlines are an art form. I hope this helps you. J.X.M

...thus dispelling the myth that "you can't judge a book by its cover"!... which personally I've never held any truck with... ("held any truck with"... there's a funny phrase... where does that come from, I wonder...??) pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

Well I never! Thanks, keleph! One learns something new every, as they say, day! Although I'm still not sure I know the original meaning of the phrase... :-/ pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

Truck - "...The sense of dealings (as in 'to have no truck with loansharks') is first recorded in English before 1625..." Dictionary of Etymology. This is the book for you, Peps! http://www.amazon.com/Barnhart-Concise-Dictionary-Etymology-Robert/dp/00...

Duke Of Fiddlesworth, Lord Trucklesstein first coined the phrase in his autobiography, which had the title and you'll like this bit "Keep On Truckin'" and of course his sequel "Truck Harder!" I hope I've cleared a few things up for you.

Well truck me! ;-) pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

Oh yes, sometimes I am very conscious of doing this, and other times I just go with what fits the poem/story I am writing. I notice that my poem 'Touch me' has garnered rather more reads than other offerings, likewise 'designed to shock' and, oddly enough, 'Liar Liar'! I also notice that the poems I post with just the first few lines as the 'teaser' often get more interest, perhaps because a true taster of the work can be seen before deciding to jump in and commit to the whole thing!

I've just had a bit of a think about this, specifically in relation to the titles I choose for my blog entries… and I've realised that the titles (mine or those of others) which I find especially satisfying are those which encapsulate multiple layers of meaning – or appear to. I have, for example, just posted a piece called "Nano Nano", which is about our increasing reliance on technology. This title, although deceptively simple, works (in my humble opinion) for the following reasons… 1. Because it is deceptively simple – like some of the gadgets I refer indirectly to, which are (to quote myself) "slick and sexy on the surface but impossibly complex beneath" (okay, maybe my title isn't "slick and sexy" or indeed "impossibly complex," but I think you get the gist). 2. Because the piece is, in part, about nano-technology. 3. Because it sounds like "Nanu Nanu" – that being the greeting of the star of a popular American sitcom from the 1970's about a friendly and somewhat silly alien (and there is a tentative link between aliens and technology and the future and so forth). …and, if I really thought about it, I could perhaps think of additional "layers." So… I reckon… Layers of meaning maketh a good title! :) pe ps oid "the progenitor" "the art of tea" "that's an odd courgette"

A very well read friend of mine in A.A. who's an Oscar Wilde devotee, told me that at one point 'earnest' also meant homosexual. Clever bugger he was.

Actually for me its the writer. but since no one outside this site and a few friends knoew who the hell we are, I'd say the title is very important.

I like the title to fit the piece. Never cared much for vying. Story of my life really.