Q&A with Mr. Fob

Boy, those mailbags are piling up here at the Fobcave! Let's see if I can answer a few of my faithful readers' questions:

Dear Mr. Fob,

Here's a random question not related to the current post. I notice that as the subject heading for "Fob," you've got this:

610 27 Fob (Friends of Ben writing group) |2 fob (11)

I have a question about the 2nd indicator. According to OCLC Bibliographic Formats and Standards, the 2nd indicator should be "0" if the subject heading comes from LCSH, but doesn't LCSH not include proper names, with the exception of fictional characters? Is a proper name considered to be part of LCSH if it's authorized by that venerable institution (even if it doesn't make it into ClassWeb or the red books)?

Also, I always thought that FOB was capitalized . . .

Sincerely,

Mentally Ill in Illinois

Dear Ms. Ill,

I was pretty sure I knew the answer to this one, but I checked with OCLC just to be sure. The rule says that a zero in the second indicator means that the heading conforms to LCSH, which means that it might be found in an LC authority file (which includes not only LCSH but also name authorities), or that it is "construed following AACR2." Technically speaking, Fob (Friends of Ben writing group) is construed following AACR2--it's formed exactly how an official LC name would be formed, and if there were literary warrant it could be submitted to the name authority file. But I'm pretending there's a Fob thesaurus and if there were then all the variations of Fob would certainly be in it.

As for capitalization, FOB and FoB are both acceptable forms when referring to the name of the writing group (but not when referring to the family name or the term designating members of the group or the verb describing what members of the group do), but I like to think that the name has transcended the letters from which it was formed and so I treat it as a proper noun rather than an acronym. In this sense, Fob follows the lofty tradition of such normalized acronyms as radar and snafu.

Dear Mr. Fob,

That was an excellent post in a series of...how do we count? four? five?

Love,

Conthused

Dear Conthused,

Well, that depends on what you're counting, and honestly I'm not sure what you're counting. Usually I start with one. All the same, thanks for the compliment.

Dear Mr. Fob,

I say you're "neosexual." ;-)

And if anyone has a problem with you staying married, screw 'em.

Yours truly,

Profile Not Available

Dear PNA,

That's an... interesting solution, but I'm not sure how my wife would feel about it. And frankly, I'm not sure I'm up to it. (But I do have a friend who's rumored to have accomplished a similar feat.)

I'll consider the neosexual thing, though.

Best wishes,

Mr. Fob

And that's all we have time for today, folks. Keep fobbing!