Tapped Potential

And it came to me, like a bolt from the blue:

Smuggler, Snuggler, Straggler, Struggler

Nothing occasioned it. It appeared fully-formed in my head. It seemed to arrive spontaneously, as genius often does. Something out of nothing is impossible. I realise that. But it was something out of something so obscure and unknowable that it might as well have been nothing.

It's a beautiful thing. It sounds good. It rhymes. But what is it?

My first thought was a Twitter bio. They have to be short, and all of the original ones have already been taken. But does it really define me?

I'm definitely a snuggler. I snuggle with the best of them. I'm snuggling right now.

I'm also a straggler. I'm never one to take charge. I like to lurk at the back. Snuggling.

You know I'm a struggler. This whole blog is a testament to that.

It's the first one that's a problem. I'm not a smuggler. I'd be a rubbish smuggler (almost as much as I'd be a rubbish hitman).

Admittedly, I did once fail to declare my purchases of a Ben Folds Five (remember them?) MiniDisc (remember them?), a copy of the Clerks: The Animated Series (remember that?) and a massive leather coat, when I was coming back from New York. But that's not really smuggling.

I'm not even a smuggler in a vague metaphorical sense. I don't smuggle ideas; I carry them in plain sight.

I would hate to lie on my Twitter bio (my current one includes "comedian"), so it's not an option.

What else? What can I use "Smuggler, Snuggler, Straggler, Struggler" for?

The obvious choice is a variant of "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Sailor". It could be an alternate rhyme for determining the occupation of your future spouse. Which would you rather marry? Presumably, it would be the snuggler. No-one wants to marry a struggler.

A related option is a version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

Smuggler, Snuggler, Straggler and Struggler would make for some interesting character dynamics. It could be a real pot-boiler.

For either of these, I'd need to come up with some equivalent of Rich Man, Poor Man, Beggar Man, and Thief.

But I like the rhyming. And I like words that end in "ggler". I can't think of many.

There's wiggler, wriggler and waggler. (Spell check doesn't recognise "waggler", but we've all been bored at urinals, right lads?)

There's Dirk Diggler and Dolph Ziggler, but proper names don't count.

Boggler? Is that a word? One who boggles?

Haggler? (One who haggles, not Marvellous Marvin)

I don't like any of them. I like the simplicity of the original.

Smuggler, Snuggler, Straggler, Struggler.

It's perfect as it is. I don't want to dilute it.

Maybe it could be a sitcom. Or the names of my quadruplets. Cartoon animals? Rapper pseudonyms?

Or maybe there's only one good use for it: the basis of an entertaining blog post.

It's worth a try.