Fame is being the subject of a chain email.

[davywavy]

Some time ago, I wrote a satirical post about the recent war in Iraq, comparing it to the Lord of the Rings. This was well recieved, and in fact cropped up (uncredited, bah) in all kinds of places.

I was reminded of this when I got a chain email the other day. I've often wondered who writes chain emails - who takes that time and effort for anonymous circulation? It hadn't really occurred to me that the creators of the mails simply cut and pasted someone elses work and didn't credit them. Not that I'm bitter about it, you understand. Oh no.
Anyway, the chain mail I got was this one:


The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdain" to "Dress In Uniform
and Sing Marching Songs". They have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and
"Lose".

Seeing this reaction in continental Europe, the Americans have gone from
"Isolationism" to "Find Another Oil-Rich Nation For Regime Change". Their
remaining higher alert states are "Attack Random Countries (Ideally Those
Without Any Credible Military)" and "Beg The British For Help.

The British are also feeling the pinch in relation to recent bombings and have
raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved". Soon though, security
levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross". Londoners
have not been "A Bit Cross" since the Blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but
ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "Bloody
Nuisance". The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during
the Great Fire of London in 1666.


So, on this occasion, I know who wrote the chain email, or at least part of it.
It was me.
My apologies to those spammed by my work.

Comments

[twicedead.livejournal.com]

There's nothing like getting hit with your own urban myth/chain letter.

I've had it a couple of time in werewolf games, one where a moron player tried to convince me of certain legendary things that occurred in this game he had heard about and refused to believe me when i told him i was playing in that game and none of that nonsense had happened.

Another hit me on the white-wold website where someone totally unconnected with the Cam used my character as a famous example of a totally cheesed and evil character.

[kathminchin.livejournal.com]

Well Twicedead was thoroughly evil by the end.

Cheesed? Only in so far as he'd been played for years and had actually done everything he claimed he had :o)

[madwitch.livejournal.com]

Cheesed? Nah. Long played, yes.

Though I do remember trying to audit him and giving up sobbing halfway through. Of course, that was partly because the next one in the pile was Lawbringer...

[vulgarcriminal.livejournal.com]

HAHAHHAAHA! I've received that e-mail. I thought I'd read it before....

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Well, if you fwd it to anyone, make sure you credit me...

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Wow. It's like the gutter journalists of the gutter found you and made you.. infamous. Congratulations :D

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

I get THAT all the time.
Recently I had someone explain about this PC in the Old Cam campaign called 'Danton' who at ICC'99 took on a Justicar and five Archons in a single fight and killed and Archon and escaped.

I was gonna ignore him, but then he went on about hopw the player of Danton cheated... so I had to ifnorm him that no such event took place.
He was very surprised and looked at me odd and said... "How do you know?"

I dunno.
Even when you are playing a PC AND you are at the event in question, folks think your lying!
:)

[mrmmarc.livejournal.com]

Dave- get the assholes to credit you.
EVERY satirical post I made that was used got credited. Mostly becauise I left comments/emails saying 'Please credit me'.
If they didn't I would write something bad about them.
:)

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

The BBC have been ripping me off for years.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

Way back when I wrote the first UKM/Cam crossover game, I wrote a plot and told the powers that were (and I think still are) in the UKM what the game was going to be - strange goings on in the House of Elizabethan Magus Dr. Dee.
At the next UKM game I went to, you'll never guess the plot: Strange goings on in the house of Elizabethan Magus Dr. Dee.
I wasn't even irritated at being ripped off. When someone asked me why not, I just replied that at least I was capable of having original ideas, and I was capable of having more then one.
When the BBC started plundering me for ideas a few years ago, i actually entitled my LJ "this LJ is copyright so stop ripping me off". It didn't stop people ripping me off.
But still, if I'm posting to the public domain, how much right to I have to complain? I just bitch.

And anyway - unlike the people who read my LJ for ideas, I'm capable of having my own.

[(Anonymous)]

A couple of years ago I sent the Eye a cartoon - bloke with mutton-chop whiskers slumped across a bar among bottles, glasses etc. Barman: "Come along, Dr Watson, haven't you got Holmes to go to?" Came back with the usual polite slip - no thanks, not suitable, etc.

A few months ago I saw an uncannily familiar cartoon in the Eye - different art (i.e. not mine), same punchline.

I suppose the thing is, someone might have thought of it totally independently - it's not such a unique, Euclid-like idea that only one person will have thought of it every 2,000 years, after all. Ho hum.

H

[gwaunquest.livejournal.com]

I got the email from a mate of mine and when you replied with the thread to your site I sent it on to him to make sure he knew.
Many years ago I was giving my neice some advice about her work as a head teacher. I made the comparison between the school and play dough, saying a new tub of playdough is great beacause you can shape it up ect, but once the lid has been left off no matter how skilled you are it will crumble and crack and will never be quite what you want.
She told me recently that she has been to seminars and lectures where the speaker has quoted the same story and she has wanted to jump up and shout "My aunt came up with that years ago!" If you've ever read Robert Rankin I identify with his Uncle Felix.