What's In A Name?

The complaint I hear most often about my blog has nothing to do with the subject matter, the quality of the writing or the frequency of the posts.  Instead, the only thing readers ever question is the name. Caught Looking.  When I came up with it, I thought it was incredibly clever.  It's a common baseball term for taking a called third strike, but also refers to the fact that I'm always watching or reading about (in other words, looking at) sports.  Perfect.

Never once did I think about a possible association between Caught Looking and anything risque; at least not until some of my loyal readers suggested it.  Sometimes people forget the blog's URL, type "caught looking" into the Google search bar, and are less than thrilled by the results they get.  It appears that the general internet-using  public more commonly associates the phrase with smut than with sports, too.

The icing on the name-controversy cake came earlier this week, when a loyal Caught Looking reader told me that while she was browsing in her local Victoria's Secret she came across a display of Major League Baseball / PINK-branded apparel and found the following product:

The first thought that went through my mind when I heard about these was "Do they make them with the Braves logo?" (They don't.)  Next, I wondered "Can I sue Victoria's Secret for stealing my blog title?" ( I can't, and I'm already stealing my logo from MLB, so I'd be wise to keep my mouth shut.)  Finally, I came to terms with the fact that the readers linking the blog title to adult subject matter were right all along, and Victoria's Secret has the panties to prove it.

That being said, the blog name is obviously here to stay.  We all know that sex sells, so maybe the new Victoria's Secret line will generate some incremental readership and one day I'll have my very own line of underwear.  Until then, just save the URL in your favorites and think innocent thoughts.