Required Title

 Blogger has managed, again, to muck up a good system, or at least one i had grown reasonable accustomed to and able to navigate.

All of a sudden a few days ago, none of my drafts would save, even as i was typing them.  The error message kept saying a required field was being left blank.

The required field, it turned out, was the post title.

There was a time when your posts were automatically saved while you were writing them, even if you hadn't thought up a title yet, or even if you didn't want to bother to title it.  Not anymore.

The powers that be at Blogger have decided that you must title your posts at all costs before it will even save them as a draft.

If you are a conspiracy theorist, it's easy to label this one.  They want to know what you are writing about by the title, which makes it easier than having to read the whole post.  Scanning titles for worrisome trends is easier than reading the first paragraph of each to get the gist of it.

If you are not a conspiracy theorist (and i'm generally not, because if the world is run by some nefarious organization or cadre, there's nothing i can do about it, pass that kitten, it's hollering its little head off and needs a bottle, and i need to get dinner finished), then it's just the Blogger-Powers-That-Be being their usual pain in the rump selves, making a perfectly-good-system-that-was-working-just-fine-thank-you unnecessarily more complicated.

Either way, i hate having to title post i don't even quite know the topic of yet, much less what to call it.

My solution was to number them by the date in the required field.  Apparently you can title your post with a number if you want, but you have to give it a title or it won't save, even as a draft, or publish.

What is it about people who run these things -- computer geeks who are barely "human compatible" i guess -- that they have to needlessly over-complicate everything they touch?

If any of my future posts have nothing but a number or a lowercase letter as the title, you'll know i got caught up in doing other stuff and didn't re-title the thing before publishing, and excuse it, as i have more important things to worry about than the requirements of Blogger for certain before three days ago unneeded titles.


Today is

Aphrodisia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho [Persuasion]; date approximate)

Bonza Bottler Day

Build a Scarecrow Day

Chocolate Day  -- no one knows why today, so why not?  Enjoy chocolate cereal with chocolate milk for breakfast, some chocolate covered raisins and nuts as a midmorning snack, chocolate milk with lunch, chocolate truffles as a midafternoon snack, chocolate liquer before dinner, chocolate cake for dessert, and sip chocolate coffee any time through the day!

Ducktona 500 Family Festival -- Sheboygan Falls, WI, US (lots of fun for everyone, culminating in the annual plastic duck race)

Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day -- encouraging fathers to take some special time out with their girls today

Independence Day / National Day -- Solomon Islands(1978)

Macaroni Day -- it goes with more than just cheese!

National Strawberry Sundae Day

Nones of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar; celebrations on this day included:
     Festival of Feriae Ancillarum -- "Feast of the Serving Women", when female servants dressed up and "attacked" men of free birth with fig boughs; in honor of the serving women who helped free the city of Rome from the Gauls
     Nonae Caprotinae -- "Nones of the Wild Fig", honoring Juno Caprotina with a sacrifice under a wild fig tree
     Parilia -- festival for Pales, god of the herds

Saba Saba Day -- Tanzania (literally "Seven Seven" Day, a/k/a Peasants' Day or Workers' Day, and the biggest day of the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair)

St. Willibald's Day (Patron of Eichstatt, Germany)

Tanabata -- Japan (star festival, 7th day of 7th month; some areas go by lunar calendar, but most larger cities celebrate by the Gregorian Calendar now)

Tell The Truth Day -- a yearly challenge to go the whole day without telling a lie or saying or doing anything misleading or dishonest

Unity Factory Day -- Yemen (all workers are encouraged to play at work today, to build team and national unity)

Vardavar -- Armenia (continuation of an ancient pagan festival that encourages people to pull pranks, especially dousing everyone, friend and stranger, with water)



Anniversaries Today

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, 1946


Birthdays Today

Michelle Kwan, 1980
Cree Summer, 1969
Shelley Duvall, 1949
Ringo Starr, 1940
Doc Severinsen, 1927
Pierre Cardin, 1922
Robert Heinlein, 1907
Satchel Paige, 1906
Marc Chagall, 1887


Today in History

A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death, 1456
Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland, 1575
United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300, 1863
An International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15, 1915
Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri; it is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped", 1928
Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident, 1947
Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere, 1959
In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government, 1969
Sharia is instituted in Iran, 1980
Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov, 1983
The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching, 2006