In the end I’ve decided to use different taglines depending on the occasion, because Fourth Night is, after all, a chimerical creature with unruly metamorphic tendencies that I can’t always anticipate. So depending on the occasion, I’ll use the most relevant tagline. For now, I’m taking the advice of “A different voice,” namely to disregard the tagline and — something I’ve been meaning to do for some time — reintroduce my old header image. The figure in the photo, by the way, is a sculpture by the Monhegan artist Ted Tihansky, who chainsaws figures out of tree stumps and logs, sets them on fire until they blacken, and then raises them, charred and otherworldly, to contemplate this world.

One comment I’d like to mention came via email. The author said he was not crazy about any of the choices for a tagline and felt the writing “deserves something deeper as a sub-descriptor.” He went on: “I read your About section and for some strange reason the words ‘Missives from the Plague Wagon’ sprang to mind.” I’m not sure if I’ll ever use it, but the fact that it intuitively sprang to his mind after reading my About section makes it without question my favorite tagline. 

For the past few months I’ve spent countless hours scrawling out dozens, or more like hundreds, of sketches for a Fourth Night emblem. Considering that, at last, I have the image to present, I feel entitled to write sparsely today. Thanks to Brian Hall for taking fifteen minutes to walk me through some foreign Photoshop territory (and out of my resigned despair) last night by phone. And thanks to RJ for the Illustrator tutorial back in April, even though I gave up on that program after quickly finding myself in labyrinthine vector-graphics hell.

Please feel free to let me know what you think of the image. Just know that, unlike the tagline, I’m staunchly committed to this one. All the elements that I want are there. After all the sketches and scribbles, I can at last raise a claw to the night and shout, Eureka!                                      

CLICK HERE FOR THE IMAGE

Some of the headers that I’ve come up with, with much-appreciated help from others, are listed in the polls below. Please take a few seconds to vote. I’m leaning heavily towards one of them but public opposition might sway me (or egg me on). If you’d rather email me than comment directly, you can do so at fourthnight[at]gmail[dot]com but if you’re willing to post a comment, even better. That also goes for those of you who are encountering this website for the first time. You can find a quick overview in my About section; otherwise, please go ahead and comment in the dark. I’d curious to hear how these taglines sound to someone who knows nothing about the site (after all, the most frequent search term that leads to my site, along with “virgin mary breastfeeding” is “what’s a fourth night”).  

You need not tread gingerly here: let it rip. I wouldn’t still be writing if I couldn’t handle the occasional tooth and fang. And if you have any suggestions for a variation on a tagline, or even an entirely new one, please share it. Just keep in mind that if I like it, I might steal it from you (I’ll credit you for the stolen goods, however). Don’t ask for royalties, because unlike so-called non-profits that claim earnings every year, Fourth Night runs exclusively on losses. In this business, getting a cut of the action amounts to receiving a bill. Of course, there are advantages to being in the red all the time. As the Cypriot saying goes, the drenched have nothing to fear from the rain. And no, that’s not one of the choices below.