1. We had a technical meltdown late yesterday afternoon and PubliCola was on the blink for about three hours between 4:30 and 7:30. Sorry about that. We're still developing the site. And as we try to set things up, our server can freak out and taunt readers for hours with messages about reliable hosting.

 

2. Lots of people have asked me where I got the name PubliCola. Here's the answer:

It's a Federalist Papers reference.

I'm a big James Madison fan. One great thing about Madison is this: Along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, he wrote the Federalist Papers. ( I go as Madison every year for Halloween.)



 

I feel like Madison and his Federalist Papers co-horts were the first bloggers—posting their running set of screeds in the New York press in 1788 trying to convince the 13 states to ratify the Constitution. Madison also co-wrote the Constitution, man.  

The Federalist Papers-as-blog-entries conceit is heightened by the fact that each article was signed with a pseudonym.

Madison, Hamilton, and Jay's pseudonym? "Publius."

Publius was a reference to an early leader of the Roman Republic named Publius Valerius Publicola.