would a blog by any other name smell so sweet?

Do you find that your blog name starts to define you?

I chose the blog name "Painted Maypole" quite on a whim (just as I started blogging on a whim). I tried several other names, and they were all taken. For some reason, my mind landed on the phrase "Painted Maypole." It was available. A blog was born.

The phrase comes from the third act of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, when the men have been charmed into loving Helena, Helena is convinced it's all cruel joke on her, and Hermia is rather ticked off. Hermia says this to Helena:

Puppet? why so? ay, that way goes the game.
Now I perceive that she hath made compare
Between our statures; she hath urged her height;
And with her personage, her tall personage,
Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
And are you grown so high in his esteem;
Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
How low am I, thou painted maypole? speak;
How low am I? I am not yet so low
But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.

that's me, in the purple, as "Painted Maypole" Helena, summer 2000

Basically, Hermia is calling Helena an overly made up, tartish, skinny beanpole. And this is the name I've chosen to go by online. Hmmm... As I said, I didn't give it much thought at the outset, but now it's my moniker. I kind of like it, despite its insulting origins (besides, what's wrong with being tall?). (Because May Day is a celebration of spring and fertility, the Maypole is also a rather obvious phallic symbol, but I'll just breeze right by that...)

So once I've embraced the name Painted Maypole, it seems only appropriate that I adopt May Day (May 1st) as a special holiday. We've invited the neighbor girls over for a little party. Rather than going out into the woods and cutting down a tree to decorate for our maypole, I'll be braving the wilds of our garage for a broom handle. We'll decorate the pole with ribbons and dance around it, perhaps while singing some of these songs. We'll wear flower wreaths in our hair and keep an eye out for fairies. We'll make this maypole centerpiece. We'll make May Day Baskets, fill them with flowers, and hang them from doorknobs. We'll eat flower shaped sugar cookies. It should be fun.

And look, I just planned a May Day party for you. Have one! And don't forget to swing by here on the actual day. I'll be having my own little May Day giveaway, but you have to come by on May Day to leave a comment to enter the drawing.

If you're really dying for more May Day info you can look here, here or here.