Imagine my surprise when Susan hands me this morning’s Oregonian, nonchalantly telling me Garrison Keillor has plagiarized my stroke article. As it turns out, it’s just another example of great writers thinking alike, or older folks sharing experiences – I guess; as I said, my ER doctor told me “we see them all the time.”
My article ran in the Oregonian’s Aug. 29th print edition (it ran the day before on the Oregonian web site), and Garrison had his stroke on Labor Day, Sept. 7. His article ran in today’s Salon, and is of course picked up by any number of papers through syndication, including today’s, Sept. 16th, Oregonian (B7).
In any case, I assured Susan that while some writers will take risks to get stories, I don’t think Garrison had a stroke just to write an article. I know I didn’t.
I’m glad to hear that Garrison is doing well. I enjoyed his article, and of course agree with his conclusion – “We are all in the same boat….”
The Coming of the Toads 