Is Originality Overrated?

Thought for the day: Accept it. Some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the windshield.

Still feeling rather heady about finally setting up this blog, I did a Google search on myself (Oh, come ON! You KNOW you've done it!) to see if my blog was easy to find. Much to my chagrin, I found that there are twelve, count 'em, TWELVE! other people in the U.S. with the same name, plus an artist in Canada, and God only KNOWS how many other "mes" there are lurking beyond the web.

Sheesh. The cold sad truth is, I'm just one in a crowd. Not an original at all. (sniff)

But, worse than that, the real crap-a-doodle moment came when I did a search on  I Think; Therefore, I Yam. I was horrified. Would you believe (gasp!) that you can already buy shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with that saying? As Achmed the Dead Terrorist would say, "Holy crap."

Y'see, I first saw the expression several years ago in a column of "vents" in our local newspaper. Liked it. No, LOVED it. And remembered it. I mean, it's so ME. And it seemed like such a unique and original title to use for this blog. (almost as original as my name, right?)

Turns out, the phrase allegedly originated in a bit of graffiti found in San Francisco in 1980. That makes it anonymous, right? Yeah, right. So, I'm still gonna use it. May not be "original", but like I said, it IS "me". And, you know what?  I may just have to get myself one of those tee shirts. ("I had no idea my blog would take off so quickly!")

Reminds me of a newsletter I used to write. I always ended it by saying, "Take care of yourselves. And each other." For years, that's how I ended it. Then a friend asked, "Did you know Jerry Springer says that at the end of his shows?"

Crap, no.

But, we decided, since I'd been doing it for so long, maybe Jerry Springer got it from ME. (That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.)

So, even though we writers reek of originality and try to avoid the trite at all costs, I do hope you'll forgive me this title. It makes me smile, and that has to count for something.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend. I'll be back on Monday, and in the meantime, take care of yourselves. And each other.

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Most eyebrow-raising news quote of the week: "People who don't love me don't deserve to live." Nope, that didn't spill from the lips of some egomaniacal actress going in for another round of rehab; it came from the egomaniacal mouth of Moammar Gadhafi. Earlier in the week, he said Libyans were rioting because bin Laden drugged 'em. Tell ya what, he'd make an interesting character in a book, wouldn't he?