Why Is This Blog Called What’s It’s Called?

Why is this blog called Any Second Now?  Great question.  

The first name I came up with for this blog was “The Retired Fed”.   Seems obvious.  To me. ‘Cause I was a proud U.S. federal government employee, and I retired.  I figured that title would interest a niche audience of federal workers who are retired or maybe planning on retirement soon. And maybe I might have some useful things to say about that transition. 

But farewell to that idea. When I went to register the domain, I discovered that someone else had already thought of theretiredfed.com.  There is a site and It looks pretty but, as of now, there isn’t anything there. So if it ever comes into being, I’ll be an interested reader!  

I tried some other variations – retiredfederalworker, postfedlife, nextstep, and the like – but none of them resonated with me.  Actually, some of them resonated a bit with me, but not with Mrs. anysecondnow, whose love for the sounds of good words and diction is only exceeded by her antipathy for the sounds of dumb words.  (Do not say “mouth-feel” to her.)  Suffice it to say, she did not like some of my made up words.  

I’ll pause here to note that most “how to start a blog” sites advise not sweating the name too much.  Just pick something and go with it.  This feels true.  Think about the oddball names out there for blogs.  Or for massively popular online businesses – AirB&B, Zillow, ebay, to name a few – what do those names even mean? And does anyone care?  It appears not.  At least not enough to stop them from using said websites and businesses.   

And so, resolving not to sweat the name too much, I reflected more on the transition of life aspect and less on the federal worker aspect.  And then reflected on some of my favorite 80s movies.  Was there a quote from one of them that could work as a blog name about transitioning to early retirement?

This brings us to the John Cusack and Iona Skye just barely staying in the 80s (1989) classic Say Anything.  I don’t know if I could say that this is my favorite 80s movie Only because there are so many contenders.  I mean, how re-watchable are these 80s classics? Back to the Future, Red Dawn, Aliens, Ghostbusters, Empire Strikes Back, Amadeus.  I could list many others. So could you., though it might be, but either way, it’s kind of a perfect movie.¹

I mean, seriously, I think Say Anything is darn near flawless for the pathos-filled teenage romance movie that it is.  Packed with memorable lines, every actor– major to minor– knocking it out of the park, Peter Gabriel’s In Your Eyes and other great tunes, the iconic boomboxSurprisingly, the iconic boombox scene doesn’t resonate with me as much as other scenes. For instance, my #1 scene -- and there are many to choose from -- might be the the back and forth between Lloyd and Jim Court in the prison yard at the end --'I'm incarcerated, Lloyd!' But all that said I do recognize that the boombox image has become an iconic 80s image and I think that's great. scene, not to mention some deeper parent-child and integrity themes threaded in, and it all ends with Lloyd sitting next to Diane, giving her “high level airline safety tips” on a 747 to London. 

They are leaving the US, embarking on a new adventure into the unknown, not sure what will happen, but full of optimism and hope.  Kind of like me. Here you go.  It’s the last line.

1. These guys agree: https://www.theringer.com/2019/04/01/movies/say-anything-cameron-crowe-30th-anniverary. ↩︎