I’m thinking of using these as the titles for my next 97 blog posts

Where do you think these actually came from?

(No googling—that would be cheating.)

P.S. Anyone who wants to know the answer can google it. But there were some great guesses in the comments. My favorite, from Frank:

I’ve got to go with “before the colon” in questionable social science papers, e.g:

“Don’t make me laugh: the effect of late-night comedy on fatal traffic accidents”

or

“Out of the jaws of victory: evidence of a hot hand in shark fishing”

53 thoughts on “I’m thinking of using these as the titles for my next 97 blog posts

  1. I’ve got to go with “before the colon” in questionable social science papers, e.g:

    “Don’t make me laugh: the effect of late-night comedy on fatal traffic accidents”

    or

    “Out of the jaws of victory: evidence of a hot hand in shark fishing”

  2. I read too much old school detective novels, these sound like titles that Frank Kane, Raymond Chandler, or Donald Westlake would use.

    I am extremely familiar with [and own the entire canon of] Frank Kane, and I don’t see a single one of his on here, so down to Chandler or Westlake.

    Chandler has a high propensity to use “The” in his titles and not many here have that.

    So I am going to go with these are Westlake novel titles? Haven’t read enough to notice the titles on sight, but I will go with that as my guess.

  3. Why is “Dead of Night” struck through? Aside from it being a screen cap, this makes it look like a list of titles that have been contemplated but not used. Except perhaps for “Dead of Night.” Beyond that, I second Dan’s suspicions of film noir detective or perhaps crime novels…

  4. No one else so far has commented on the groupings. So perhaps they are story or book titles grouped by author? Or TV series episodes grouped by title?

  5. Here are a few more for your consideration.. ;)

    The Tower Treasure
    The House on the Cliff
    The Secret of the Old Mill
    The Missing Chums
    Hunting for Hidden Gold
    The Shore Road Mystery
    The Secret of the Caves
    The Mystery of Cabin Island
    The Great Airport Mystery
    What Happened at Midnight
    While the Clock Ticked
    Footprints Under the Window
    The Mark on the Door

  6. – “The Fifth Down” – reference to American Football? “Man Here Has a Gun” – sounds more like American vernacular? “Seamster” – pun on “Teamster”, again US English. “Fair Dame” – more likely US 1930s vernacular for “woman” than the UK honorific?

    – The language has got a few pre-war hints.

    – The one I’m really pondering is “All of Life is 6 to 5 Against”. I can’t imagine this as a movie or a book title. But it could work as a chapter title or short story in a magazine? Titles for some kind of pulp serial?

    – The sequences also lend themselves to chapter titles. There’s clearly a relationship between successive entries, and a kind of narrative flow from “Never Say Die” to “Beyond the Night” (and maybe even to “Out of the Night”).

    So I guess chapter titles, or maybe short stories, from a book or serialized story published in the US in the 1930s.

    • I know using google is cheating in this case, but this reminded me of a very useful tool Google used to have where one could list a few members of a set & google would complete the set.

      Too bad it doesn’t seem around any more.

      • To clarify, I’m interested in other lists, made by different entities, analogous to the one above.

        And what is a list of entities likely to have created such a list, and for us to know about it? Just brainstorming, I’ll say O. Henry, Steven King, and the band New Order. Or actually Spinal Tap, for some meanings of actually. This is no longer looking good: now I guess Rod McKuen. Joanne Fluke and many others like her, but those shouldn’t count.

    • Westlake is great (though I disagree with his opinions about Sherlock Holmes). Some of the comic crime mystery titles from his other list might be useful blog titles as well.

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