I'm a celebrity - by association anyway

I like to read a lot of blogs. When one makes me smile or laugh a couple times, I'll usually add it to my Google Reader.

I'm sure if you're much of a blog-reader yourself you've heard of cjane, the sister of nienie (who was in a plane crash in August). And if you haven't read either blog, I'm sure you've at least seen the buttons that link to their blogs on others that you read. Cjane's blog was just voted the best major blog, she was on the Today Show, has had many-an-article written about her, and is probably the most widely-read blog on the net. She's a celebrity of sorts amongst us blog dorks.

Recently I added another semi-popular blog to my list called On That Note. As I opened today's post, it sounded incredibly familiar to something I'd recently read from cjane. Shockingly familiar, in fact. I opened up both blogs and read them together and the plagiarism reminiscent of a 7th grade report was HILARIOUS. And a titch flabbergasting as well. Did she really think no one would notice she copied one of the most popular blogs on the web?

As a regular reader of cjane's wit, I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on her sense of humor and was sure she'd find this hilarious, too. She gets hundreds of emails, and though I've never been one of them, I thought this merited a note.

My email to cjane:

Cjane,

I've been a reader of your blog for awhile now, but I've never written before. I thought I'd break this trend and point out that you must be pretty popular. A semi-popular blog called, On That Note, has a post today that is nearly identical to your post from Monday about March. It uses the same phrases with perhaps a word changed here and there, and even many of the desires she expresses are the same. You can see it at http://herbigfamily.blogspot.com/2009/03/welcome-march.html.

Maybe you don't care, maybe this happens a lot, and maybe I'm being snarky, but I thought it was a tad irritating and thought you might get a kick out of it. You seem the type who'd just take it for what it is and be flattered. Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.

Keep dishing us the clever wit, even if others do claim it as their own.

Hope you have a good day,

Heather

Much to my surprise, merely an hour and a half later she wrote me back:

Heather,

You just made my day. I am laughing out loud. This is definitely the first time this sort of thing has happened. Thanks for taking the time to e-mail me. I love snarky and therefore, I must love you too.

Courtney

It made my day to hear from her, and to know that we're now instant "friends". And call me a loser if you want (it's kinda true), but a "celebrity" says she "loves me too."

Oh, and about my whole being a better person thing and not making fun of people even when it's funny... yeah, sometimes you have to make exceptions. Forgive me?

To compare the two blogs yourself, cjane's original post is here, and the copy is here. It's a good laugh.