Jumping on the bandwagon

My first post. How exciting! I can join this little community that is the bloggers. Blog. What a strange word. Kind of sounds like a splotch of words, sprayed over the page. What a lovely image. Actually splotch is kind of a strange word too isn't it. Hmm strange words, now that's a topic for me to start with.

Let me start by introducing myself. I am Treezy, sister of Cesca, avid traveller, and a bit of a word geek. I get frustrated by signs that are mispelled or grammatically incorrect, and have been known to get a black marker and correct them (although also recognise that I'm not right all the time).



So back to me and words. I ADORE Scrabble. I just love scanning the board for suitable places and words to get my 7 letter, triple word score. I love reading, but once failed first year university English, by not reading the books, and not turning up to the exam.

So I've jumped on the bandwagon (another interesting word). Was there really a wagon with a band on it? What kind of band was it? (pause as I go to search the etymology of the word bandwagon and this is what I found).

bandwagon
1855, Amer.Eng., from band (2) + wagon, originally a large wagon used to carry the band in a circus procession; as these also figured in celebrations of successful political campaigns, being on the bandwagon came to represent "attaching oneself to anything that looks likely to succeed," a usage first attested 1899 in writings of Theodore Roosevelt.

Fantastic! A circus. I love circuses but I'm more into the Cirque de Soleil rather than the Lion jumpiing through a firey hoop version.

So anyway, I'm here! I've joined the circus procession, and I hope to use this blog (actually what's the etymology of blog - this kind of stuff FASCINATES me).

blog (plural blogs), shortened from weblog

1.(Internet) website that allows users to reflect, share opinions, and discuss various topics in the form of an online journal while readers may comment on posts. Entries typically appear in reverse chronological order.

So there we go. I'm not sure exactly how this blog will play out, but I am sure that there will be lots of tangents, some useless trivia about words or otherwise, and just generally the thoughts of me, a 29 year old woman, from New Zealand.