Anonymity

There's a song in the musical "Chicago" titled Mr. Cellophane. For those of you who aren't Great White Way buffs or Richard Gere fans, it's sung by the oft-ignored husband of a 1920s celebutante. In the song, he basically whines about and bemoans his inconsequential, undistinguished self.

I always hated that song. I hated the way he victimized himself, the passive attitude with which he sings it, and (as a woman who loves the spotlight) I hated the way he'd fade into the background and let everyone else walk all over him.

But I'm starting to change my mind. There can be something truly precious about anonymity and I believe that we all value a certain degree of obscurity for ourselves. In my marketing class today, I just learned that the Experion credit agency has information on 99% of the population in the United States. And not just their credit score -- they have scores upon scores of marketing data on you, like your purchasing habits and spending patterns, what magazines you subscribe to, what Web sites you visit. That means there is only one percent of the U.S. population that has managed to keep their lives private! One measly, little percent. This is disturbing, folks! Not that I've made any purchases I'm not willing to 'fess up to, but I find it rather unsettling that some credit or marketing firm knows that much about me!

Still, I admit that I'm a fairly open person. I might even be known to overshare after consuming a few drinks. But I value my anonymity. I want to respond to Craigslist postings without the recipient knowing my real name or what I do. I want to shop at Trader Joe's without Whole Foods finding out about the affair. Blogs do that. They let you share without identification (SWI, if you will). And it means that thanks to code names, I can SWI about my friends, Craigslist postings, my ex-boyfriends, the Gang of 100, etc.

Speaking of the Gang of 100, I feel like I should devote more blog estate to certain members. Mostly because only a handful of them know about this blog and I can be shamelessy honest in this venue. But also because these people and school have consumed my life and they entertain me. Some more SWI is definitely on the docket. Every member is free game, but of course, will have codenames, since I ought to protect their anonmity to the same extent that I protect my own.

Let's start with a guy I'll call The Sourdough. Nah...I'll save that for another night...