Thursday, August 21, 2008

I'm a thief

As a writer and delightful bon vivant I'm always worried about unintentionally ripping someone off. I've talked about this with other writers and whenever a particular word or phrase flies off your fingertips too easily it's suspect. For example, I recall "alluring down-turned smile" once coming out of me and then wondering where it came from because it didn't really sound like me.

Anyway! Remember when I wrote that whole good news and bad news post? Titled I Blame Denver? Well I went to Wendy's blog tonight and looks like she had the good news/bad news construct cornered way before I did. I feel so... stealthy.

Yes, that's right, I'll say it. I am proud that I'm stealing. You think I'm going to live by your rules? By society's rules? I don't think so. I name my plants and I steal from my friends. It's just who I am.

6 comments:

betch said...

On Red Eye, you've said some gosh-awfully funny quips that have swirled around in my head and ran amuck, like "What a rank lot of skanks!" and "I think I just dropped an egg. . ."

I've pilfered them! I am deeply ashamed and duly embarrassed but sometimes the opportunity for quick laughs is sooo ripe, they just pour out.

Toddrod said...

Remind me not to let you borrow my ATM pin number!

Toddrod

Anonymous said...

Quote of the Idea thief:

"The biggest thief for me personally that steals away my fun summertime is the obligation to go back to class on the 25th of August. Darn, I hate Nursing School....."

---Nurse Anonymous

Anonymous said...

Betch - every time you say you've dropped an egg, you should send Alison a quarter :o)

But I know! A cease and desist order was faxed to me last night from Bette Midler's lawyer telling me to stop using her song titles.

The Divine Miss M - my butt.

But hey, if Joe Biden can can plagiarize a speech by a British politician and still be considered for vice president, I should be able to use a song title or two.

Seriously, I remember how the award-winning author Doris Kearns Goodwin was acused of plagiarism in one of her books. (I've read a couple of her books - she's a great author.) At the time it sounded to me like she may have done a copy/paste with the intention of rewriting the passage, but didn't. Stephen Ambrose has been accused of plagairism too. It's just too easy to do these days.

Obviously if I've ever posted anything here that's even remotely funny, you can be sure I copied it from somewhere.

Ted from Accounting said...

I plagiarize Wendy's stuff all the time...Don't we all?

Cool Beans!

Noelle Hancock said...

I have this problem all the time. I'll come up with a hilarious blog post headline only to realize later that I'd read it on Defamer or Best Week Ever blog a few months earlier. Now I keep a Microsoft Word file where I write down funny things I come across so that if there's any doubt that I saw it somewhere else, I can do a quick search to double check.