Xrlq phoned me yesterday as I was going in to work, to inform me that local radio personality Bill Handel stole my idea, and got himself nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. (My campaign is still on track, but action has been delayed because my potential nominator has been out of the country at a conference.)
Why did Xrlq say Handel “stole” my idea? Well, there is an interesting factor at work here. Handel’s producer is my good friend Justin Levine, who has a report on Handel’s nomination here.
However, in an e-mail, Justin tells me that it’s pure coincidence that Handel happened to come up with the same idea as me . . . unless, he says, Handel has been regularly reading Patterico without telling Justin — something Justin characterizes as “a theoretical possibility.” (Heh.)
Of course, Handel did mention Patterico on his program once — which could, on its face, support that “theoretical possibility.” But it turned out that Justin was behind that — which kind of puts us back to square one.
I think this is yet another instance where an aphorism I like to use applies: Great minds think alike — and sometimes they think like me, too.
And, after all, Justin notes: “But hey, you can still be the first Blogger to get a nomination. That would still be a badge of honor.” With Tookie Williams among my company, I’m not sure “honor” is really the word Justin was looking for.