why 'Bristling Badger'?

Like surprisingly few of life's great ideas, the name was a flash of inspiration in a Breton shower.

I like it cos it's a name that's hard to define in any narrow way. When you see Conservative Punk you know what you're gonna get (even if you wish you didn't). And that's fair enough if that's what you want your blog to be. In these times of advertising overload and its attendant deceptive language, more than ever there's a need for frankness, directness, making it say on your tin what you do.

However, what I'm putting on my blog won't readily fit any neat little title. Some of it'll be political rants and commentary - expect recurrent themes to be music, highlighting nonsense and/or suggesting humane and sustainable alternatives - some of it'll be comedy internet daftness, some of it inconsequential meanderings that I just want to write down. A personal blog's here to be a journal, so it should be varied, it should be trivial and profound, funny and solemn, reflections from the different facets of the blogger.

Bristling Badger works as a name cos it's ambiguous enough to include all that variety, yet the name's not totally vacant. It sounds a bit daft - as in 'mad as a badger'- and badgers have a great sturdy stoic frame and really cool stripes. I have neither, but I like these qualities if interpreted as personality traits. In anthropomorphic stories the badger always has authoritative wise ideas and explains them well, whether it be Wind In The Willows or PC Badger admonishing Tufty the 1970s road safety squirrel.

Bristling can be either a slightly riled point-making thing, or the sunnier 'bristling with ideas' meaning. Whichever, there's a full of ideas vibe.

And of course, I just like the sound of it.