Apparently Britney's second child is now named Sutton Pierce, and I started thinking. I can't remember where I read this, but apparently parents tend to name children according to their own aspirations. Between Sean Preston and Sutton Pierce, I'd say that self-declared "country" girl Britney seems to be reaching for a yuppier plane of existence (and may or may not be obsessed with fighting skin cancer, what with using the initials SPF twice and all now). At the same time, names like "Max" and "Sam" have been popular over the last ten years or so with older celebrities (by which I mean, grown actors and not former teen queens), which would suggest to me that they're trying to keep their kids grounded.

It made me start thinking about my own name--what was my mother trying to reach for when she named me? What did she want for me? My real name, as I've said before, is Lauren, and I was born in '78; she very indignantly denied that she'd named me after Lauren Hutton, which is hilarious to me for some reason. She also says that she wanted to name me something that other parents weren't using, and was very pissed off when her best friend at the time, and then half of America, subsequently bestowed it upon their own children. So I went back to my well-thumbed copy of The Last Word on First Names (from the people who brought you Beyond Jennifer and Jason) which says, "The Lori of the '90s, Lauren is seriously trendy [as of 1995], but manages to hang on to some measure of sophistication and strength. According to a Harvard sociologist's study, it's among the most preferred names of mothers with high educations--or was in the 1980s."

When I was a lot younger, I didn't like my name. I didn't outright hate it, but I wished I'd been named something girlier, something softer--my favorite names when I was eight years old were Samantha and Rebecca. Anything with an A or an E/Y sound on the end, I think I would have been happier about it. It was the -en that bothered me, I think--when I was in grade school, I was surrounded by girls named Anna and Sarah and Katie and Ashley, with a Selena and a Melissa for good measure. And yes, several Lauras (and Laurens). "Lauren" seemed lumpen compared to all those mellifluous names sylphing about. But when I think about my mother now, who was a social worker then, and quit after she was mugged (twice) and went into benefits administration, and was consistently paid a hell of a lot less than the men in the office even though she did her job and half of theirs as well, and survived finding out that my father was leading a double life and the utter collapse of our finances nearly ten years ago, and supported me in every single thing I ever wanted to do--I get a better idea of what she wanted for me, and I think I appreciate it now.

The "White Flour! White Flour!" comment y'all pointed out on the original Martha Stewart/Gawker entry was so awesome that I had to make an icon. Take if you want.

Gunman wounds 20 at Montreal college. Contrary to what was reported before, "Police spokesman Ean Lafreniere said there was just one gunman at the school and the search for any others was over. Although police initially suggested the gunman had killed himself, Police Director Yvan DeLorme later said at a news conference that 'based on current information, the suspect was killed by police.'" An article about the shooter himself.

Former Texas Gov. Ann Richards dies.

Lawyer Says Smith Tried to Revive Son. Also, TrimSpa CEO says Anna Nicole is incoherent with grief. God, she's got new-mother hormones on top of all this, too.

Tenth would-be planet's name changed from Xena to Eris.

Whitney Houston Seeks Separation.

John Mark Karr faces porn charges.

CBS wants to buy the next YouTube, not YouTube.

Gay Israeli-Palestinian love story alienates many.

Neil Gaiman, "drawn as an agent of the Empire spreading pestilence over our world."

The Go Fug Yourself girls review the Heatherette show at Fashion Week.

queenofattolia: "Hey -- I know you love jewelry, and I thought you'd like what this girl designs (she casts the Day of the Dead silver jewelry herself; most of the other stuff is from Oaxaca). She's a very nice person with her own little cottage industry, and I think her stuff deserves wider recognition." Outstanding--I like the Day of the Dead and Xochitl collections in particular.

quizzicalsphinx: "I have no idea if you or anyone on your friends list will realise precisely how freakin' awesome this is, but Peter Jackson has bought the rights to Naomi Novik's Temeraire novels and plans to get to work on them after The Lovely Bones and (potentially) The Hobbit are complete. If you know not of the Temeraire novels, they are Master and Commander with dragons."

Speaking of dragons, new Eragon trailer out. It looks like the cheesiest movie good money can buy--does that make sense? Maybe it will after you've watched it. The production values are good, but the production design, I guess... it ain't Chronicles of Narnia, I'll put it that way. Caveat: I am severely biased against this movie.

Same link as above: a second Apocalypto trailer.

skyblade: "On your digest blog [my note: which woefully has not been updated in forever, and may be combined back into this one], you made a prediction about Kristen Bell in the movie Fanboys and whaddya know..." I don't remember what my prediction was exactly, but if I had to guess, it was probably, "Five bucks says they manage to get her into the gold Leia bikini." And as always I was right.

Tags: births, celebrity gossip, deaths, eragon, fan service, fanboys, fashion, jewelry, jonbenet, movies, names, neil gaiman, temeraire