My friends and I are putting together an underground newspaper dealie to be distributed at our school (and before you give me warnings, I've checked to make sure what I can and can't do without administrative reprisal, so let's skip those posts, shall we?). Anyways, the one thing still lacking is a catchy name. Figured get the content, and yea, the name shall follow. Verily.
It'll usually be three articles: a short, news-related item, a satirical or just humor piece, and a large argument on some issue, with two people writing the different sides. We're looking for a cross between serious and entertaining. We may also print creative writing pieces, if they're fairly short, in place of one of the first two.
Looking for something that sounds good and is yet isn't too nerdy. Some sort of name that's part of or references to a quote is fine, as logn as I can have the quote to include (set up in the style of Ankh-Morpork Times: "The truth shall make ye free"). Here's what we've got:
The Apocryphal Apostrophe (a little too nerdy, methinks) The Town Crier The Bell and Candle (nerdom again, but we really can't help it) The Smoking Gnu (and this'll just have to have an accompanying illustration. It'll smoke not with nicotiene, but more in a smitten-with-holy-fire sense)
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
What is the name of your school? Its mascot? The regular school paper?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Like when I was in high school, the school mascot was the ram, and the school paper was "The Ram's Horn", so some underground versions were called "The Ram's Other Horn" and "HaShofar".
Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :
I don't think my school had an underground paper, but it should have.
Posted by aiua (Member # 7825) on :
My friends and I've been trying for years to get our paper, The Mjölnir, published, but it hasn't worked out quite yet. I don't think it's so much the idea of the paper as the name that we like. I mean, umlauts and nasaly sounds and it's foreign and no one knows how to pronounce it, let alone spell it- how much cooler can you get? /usless babble
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
We are the Spartans. Our paper is the Ward Street Journal.
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
So your alternative paper can be "Not the Ward Street Journal", "The Teerts Draw" (Ward Street backwards), "The Ward Street Voice", "The Peloponnesus Times", "The Doric Columns", or "The Apella".
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
"Tell the Spartans", or better still, "Obedient to the Law".
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
I like The Apella.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
I've been planning to do this for awhile. At this point though, the staff consists solely of me. Maybe if I can get some other willing souls...
Anywho:
How about, "Achille's Speel." He wasn't really a Spartan...I don't think. But his heel was a pain. And your paper could be a pain to the administration. A thorn in their side, so to speak.
Edit: I think I spelt it wrong. But I mean "speel," as in the talking thing. A meaningful speech, sort of thing.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Oh no, we simply couldn't. We just love the administration. We never want them to feel as though we're doing this on purpose to be a thorn in their side at all. Nope. Not one bit.
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Your sarcasm delights me.
Edit: Do you know what I mean by "speel?"
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
I suspect you actually mean 'spiel'. Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Is that how you spell it? Ok then:
How about, "Achille's Spiel?"
Posted by theCrowsWife (Member # 8302) on :
I was peripherally a part of an underground zine in high school. It was called The Petroleum Jelly Bean. For these sorts of names, clever is good, but you don't want to be too punny.
--Mel
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
I don't know about a name for the paper, but if it's truly Underground, you need a comic strip called Mind the Gap
I was thinking since the school mascot is the Spartans, you could go with Thermopylae in the name of the paper.
Or, since the Spartans practiced infanticide, you could probably work that into the name of the paper too.
Depends on how soon you want to be shut down.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Uh, let's keep ourselves alive for a while. Though a discussion on school mascots would be interesting in the debates section.
"So in conclusion, the Spartans regularly practiced ritualized pedophilia and infanticide. They became a warrior culture to control an enslaved majority. Obviously, this is a splendid mascot for the role model it sets forth."
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Radio Free Corneria.
Yeah, I know it's a newspaper. That's part of why it's fun.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Live Broadcast, simply. Or Radio Free Corneria, maybe. Hm.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Augh, I mean Radio Free Sparta. You confuse me.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
Your profile said you were from Corneria - that's where I got it from.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Oh. Uh. Yeah . . . Nerdy webcomic reference, I'm afraid.
Posted by xtownaga (Member # 7187) on :
My High School's underground newspaper was called Shrug. Not a terribly good name, but eh. One thing I noticed is that after all the teachers were ordered to confinscate it on sight, a little box was added to every issue that gave the ACLU's phone number. After that popped up the principal told the teachers not to take them away (unless people were reading during class or somesuch, but basically not to take it away just because of what it was).
I don't know if there was any other interaction between the writers and the Administration, but that's something you could consider doing if you run into similar trouble.
Posted by Nell Gwyn (Member # 8291) on :
quote:Originally posted by Bob_Scopatz: I don't know about a name for the paper, but if it's truly Underground, you need a comic strip called Mind the Gap
Hee! I thought that's what this was referring to when I saw the header. I personally would quite enjoy some sort of "Tube" or "Mind the Gap" reference for the title. But that's mostly because I have a London obsession.
My college had an underground paper for a while called "The Rabid Turkey" - the campus had lots of meandering wildlife, including a small flock of wild turkeys that rumor said the cafeteria served to us for Thanksgiving. Plus there was a bit of an inside joke among a lot of us about the turkeys, squirrels, deer, etc. being rabid or otherwise diseased.
My Greek history is failing me at the moment - did the Spartans have any traditional British-vs-French-style opponents? You could maybe call it "The Athenian" as a reference to their democracy. Or maybe "The Unwarded Journal"? Unwarded as in unprotected/uncensored.
That reminds me - my college also had another underground paper for a while. Its title escapes me because it was boring, but it had a regular column called "Uncensored Sense" - I didn't like the guy writing it, but I did appreciate the title.
Posted by 0range7Penguin (Member # 7337) on :
I made an underground newspaper and called it "The Underground." Its catchy and it gives readers that they are reading something secretive so they enjoy not just reading it but the idea of reading it. You can use it if you want to. *shrug*
Posted by Papa Moose (Member # 1992) on :
Our high school's newspaper was called The Phoenix. The underground newspaper (well, the interesting one of the two) was called The Poenis, complete with the biology class diagram on the front cover.
The other was called the Free Press, and of the (as I recall) three people who read it regularly, two of them wrote it.
--Pop
Posted by Mr.Funny (Member # 4467) on :
EVIL SPARTAN!
*cough*
My school's rival school has a Spartan as iots mascot.
Posted by Shawshank (Member # 8453) on :
We have an "alternative newspaper" at our school too. It's run by the administration.
One of my friends made a real zine to blast the administration- he got in a lot of trouble.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
The Spartans fought a lot among the various Greek city states -- notably against Athens.
Alexander fought them, somewhat by proxy, it appears.
But the well known battle was at Thermopylae against the Persian king Xerxes.
Posted by Dan_raven (Member # 3383) on :
The Xerox'd Xerxes?
The Casandra
The Not-Daily Delphi.
The Spartan Oracle
But the ultimate name:
The Spartan Shield--Come home with it, or on it.
(This is an actual Spartan philosophy--you either come home with your shield, or your body is returned upon it. Dropping or losing your shield means you panic'd in battle and ran away)
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
Actually, what's worse is that so far I've understood every historical reference here. I feel like such a nerd.
There's good support for Xeroxed Xerxes from the other writers . . .
Posted by Kasie H (Member # 2120) on :
One thing I haven't been able to help but notice...Michigan State's mascot is also the Spartans. Its logo is almost exactly the same as the logo on Trojan condoms (prudent warning, slightly explicit). Making the above historical Spartan motto....creative, to say the least .
Posted by advice for robots (Member # 2544) on :
The Gonzo. The Fluorescent __________. The Electric Fetus.
Posted by Black Mage (Member # 5800) on :
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