The Banned Achenshirt

We've been talking about Achenblog t-shirts for a long time on the blog, and I probably designed the first shirt before anybody brought up the subject. It was during an early phase of the blog when we were discovering our collective interest in language for its own sake and Star Trek was getting more references than either Seinfeld or Monty Python. There was a day when we collaboratively came up with the phrase, "...to boldly blog where no blog has blogged before..." and I thought that would look good on a t-shirt. I asked my daughter to design the shirt: on the front it would say SAO-15, in stencil-lettering, like a government-issued label, very mysterious, with a DC vibe. Then on the back, "...to boldly blog where no blog has blogged before..." and under that, "Achenblog." In another incarnation, the front had the SAO-15 and underneath it had my slogan, "We Know Who We Are." All these designs remain unrealized because the artist daughter never found the time to create the necessary graphics files. But when Achenfan came up with "We click." as a slogan, I asked for that as a belated Christmas present and the kid came through. She even thought of making the word "click" look like an activated hyperlink, which made it so much better. I offered the shirt to the kaboodle through Cafe Press, but Joel didn't cotton to the idea, so I took it offline.

Pixel thought Joel was actually angry, and jw was "sure he was joking." I did an intensive analysis of the kit in question and determined that overall, Joel was Not Amused by the idea of the Achenshirts, but I believe him when he says that he doesn't have the energy to get himself worked up over it. Logically and rationally he can see where he should take umbrage, but his personality just doesn't have an active 'rage department. I guess he's like the city of Atlanta, "too busy to hate."

Meanwhile, everyone except Joel seemed to love the shirts. Five people bought them in the brief time they were for sale, and people were begging Joel to find some way to provide them with Achenstuff--they would pay extra to charity, they would come up with the designs themselves, and so on.

I hope that Joel, upon reflection, will realize that the Achenshirt is entirely an homage to Himself, meant as an offering and a tribute, and that the kaboodlers only want to own and wear the Achenblog logo because he has created this great place in cyberspace where we can meet and laugh and share thoughts. When he says he has no control over the kaboodle he is wrong, because, in fact, we will do anything he says (except go away).

Update, 1/8/06: Joel clarifies:

[In-blog news: Just to be perfectly clear for once, I actually liked the Achenblog T-shirts and the We Click motto. I was pretending to take umbrage. That was the "fake umbrage" voice. Also I am hoping we can also find a way to merchandise some Carbucks coffee mugs.]