I recently registered a business in New York, called “Berg Connection.” I am now an official sole proprietorship doing business in the state under that name. (You can still call me Jim, though.)
I was leaning toward using a version of the word “editorial” in the business name. When I work with an individual scholar on her work, I am an editor—sometimes a developmental editor, sometimes a copyeditor. But when I work with a college or a nonprofit organization, I am doing other types of work, giving a workshop or consulting on program. So something more suggestive of a larger constellation of services seemed appropriate.
In a totally non-random unscientific poll, I asked a friend what he thought about when he heard the words “Berg Connection.” His response: “the first three things that come to mind are transportation, networking and Kermit.”
I laughed. I like the association with networking, and a quick search led to a common computer networking item.
It’s a “Berg connector.” You have probably seen them at some point in your life. Somewhere in the computer connections on your work desktop.
“It doesn’t immediately say ‘editor’ to me,” my friend continued.
“Editing is just one of the many components of the Berg Connection…,” I replied, half-jokingly.
The “Kermit” reference might be more remote, unless you have kids, or you were a kid in the 80s. It refers to the song Kermit the Frog sings, sitting on a log in a swamp,in the opening of The Muppet Movie (1979), called “The Rainbow Connection.”* I like the association with the Muppets and with Kermit, which I had thought of immediately too. I like the silliness of the movie and the dreamers in the song.
someday we’ll find it the rainbow connection the lovers, the dreamers and me.
The idea I want to project with this new name involves all of those connotations: connecting scholars with readers, connecting institutions to ideas, connecting dreamers to each other.
“All of us under its spell…”
Let me know how a Berg Connection can help you or your organization.
*Music and lyrics by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher.
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