One More Reason to Hate Philadelphia

This isn't a full-blown accusation, but let me just put this out there...

I was checking my StatCounter keywords today, and saw that someone did a search for "Chrustin Richardslake," which is my nickname for AI's Chris Richardson. I've never seen the mish-mashed name used elsewhere, so I've been quite proud of my originality. I thought it was pretty cool that someone was doing a search for it, so I checked out the search string to see what results actually came up. (I was hoping that I hadn't inadvertently stolen it from someone else, which would make me less original than I thought!) There were four links - two for my blog and two for the American Idol blog on phillyBurbs.com.

I did a little digging and found that the first mention of Chrustin popped up on phillyBurbs on April 3 in this post. First mention of Chrustin here came two weeks earlier, on March 21. Interesting, eh?

Now, sure, whoever writes for phillyBurbs could've quite possibly been on the same wavelength as me and just happened to come up with the same name. The cynic in me doesn't buy it, though. I mean, if it were really that obvious and popular of a nickname, surely there would be more than four Google hits for it. And I know that writers from bigger blogs scan the web and other, smaller blogs for info, which is fine...as long as they don't steal our best material! There's just something about the way this writer used the name that doesn't compute. "Magistra" didn't fully commit to the joke - referring to Chris as "Chrustin" only once, then continuing on using "Chris." The way it was just randomly thrown in there makes me suspect that it wasn't really his/her own thought.

When I was plagiarized by that moron, Steve Alter, that was rather insignificant. No one read that guy's blog. But phillyBurbs.com? You know how many people probably read that? And here I am, toiling in relative obscurity.

Maybe I wouldn't be so mad if it were Pittsburgh.com jacking my ideas. Well, yes I would. But that wouldn't happen. Pittsburghers have more class. (Yeah, I'm giving it up for the old hometown!)

I'm debating whether or not I should leave a comment over there. What do you all think?

(By the way, I didn't call him "Chrustin" this week, because he was imitating the Rascal Flatts dude, whose name doesn't marry with Chris's as well. And "Chris Rascaldson" is just lame.)

Comments

I would call this person out .. yup.. I used it but gave you full credit when I did
Tootsie said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tootsie said…
Burn his a$$, we can't have these fools trying to be as cool as folks from the "Burgh". As Kevin Meenie would say, "that's not right!"
Les Becker said…
Now I'm all worried about "Hilary Federwhore"... I stole that from you fair and square and I don't want anybody else taking credit for it.

Call him out.
BeckEye said…
I left a rather disjointed comment over there! I wasn't sure how to go about it. I mean, I don't want to waltz in there with a weird "Yo, I've cornered the market on creative nicknames" attitude, but no one else is calling Chris this. Not that I've heard, and judging by the Google search, not in writing. I feel like I'm being uber-sensitive, but then again I'm annoyed. Maybe it was that whole Steve Alter thing that's turned me paranoid. Also, I used to be friends with this girl who would always steal my funniest bits and wait until we were in a big crowd and use them to get the laugh. Of course she'd never credit me. Obviously, we're not friends anymore.

It may seem like a small thing, but it's really aggravating. But, if this writer really did come up with that nickname alone, that's wonderful. If that's the case, I think we should both replace those two ditzy girls on "Idol Chat."
Happy Villain said…
I remember the first incident and thinking that guy was just a moronic idiot, but TWO times now!? Next thing you know, Katie Couric will be publishing your posts on her blog, too! What's with this world? Do we think that "sampling" made it okay to steal things outright? If I were you, I'd start Googling all your phrases. Never know who else has been writing Eye Boogers.

And for the record, whenever you have a copyright on something, you are supposed to defend it and challenge theives aggressively, or you could actually lose your copyright. Not that you have the same situation here, but defending the originality of your work is definitely the right thing to do.
You know, it's the strangest thing, I was just thinkin' the other day, why not start a feature called "Eye Boogers?"

If you're going to pay "homage," pay "homage" to the best.
deadspot said…
Carlos Mencia lives in Philadelphia?
cube said…
I'd bring it up. At the very least they should attribute.
BeckEye said…
I've read a little more over there, and this writer seems to have a pretty good sense of humor, so I'm willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt. I mean, it is just a nickname and like I said, I don't want to come off like "oh, I'm the only person in the world who is capable of thinking that up." It feels a little silly to worry about it, but if Magistra gets tapped for an assignment on VH-1 before me, then I'll wig out. :)
Les Becker said…
How about a friendly-ish email to him telling him about all this and forgiving him all in one shot... bet you make a buddy out of it (and he'll end up giving you credit after all).
LoraLoo said…
Did you ever hear back from the comment you left? I sure hope it's all a misunderstanding. Your writing is fabulous - and it deserves credit!
No Milk Please said…
about the plagiarism, i suppose that it's pretty interesting that phillyBurbs used the same exact phrase that you coined. i expect that since they used just that term, they didn't feel the need to attribute. although i think that sucks of them.

being plagiarized myself many times, i am numb to it because most of the time, the plagiarizers have an even smaller readership than my miniscule one. so i really don't care anymore. :(