It’s a new year – time for a new blog name. I didn’t change my blog’s name last year, and I’m not planning on changing the name annually in the future, but I have been thinking about changing the name for a while.

Why?

Because I was never all that sold on “Wordspew” in the first place. When I came up with it, I thought it was just a neat portmanteau that conveyed what I thought I would do on this blog: spew words.

Because, after naming the blog, I found out that “Wordspew” is the name of a program that allows people to instant message on your blog’s home page. Every now and then, I take a look at the search engine terms that people use to get here, and “wordspew” is often one of them. I’d hate for people to be looking for that program and end up at my blog.

So Why “All is Grist”?

It comes from the saying, “All is grist that comes to the mill,” which means that everything that is received or obtained is put to use. What I do on this blog, which is I suppose what happens on most blogs, is that I write my thoughts about what I see, read or experience. Things go in, and the blog comes out. It seemed appropriate.

Also, G.K. Chesterton is one of my favorite authors, and he wrote a collection of essays with the title All is Grist. I’ve never read that particular essay collection, but it sure seems like a good title for an essay collection, and a good name for a blog. It also doesn’t seem to be a blog name that is overused, like many clever blog names.

For a little while I thought about trying to sound educated by putting my blog title in Latin. After looking at Wikipedia’s list of Latin phrases, nothing really jumped out at me aside from “surdo oppedere” – “to belch before the deaf.” This could just as easily sum up what this blog is about, but I decided against going that route.

• Autobiography