[META] Coincidence?

[Lalo Martins]

Also spracht Martin Phipps (Sun, 11 May 2008 09:50:07 +0000):

> Superfreaks Season 3 #'s 11-12 had the detectives investigating the case
> of a murderer who picked his victims according to who posted inflamatory
> remarks and/or spam on usenet message boards.  The detectives lured in
> the killer by posting their own inflamatory remarks and spam on message
> boards and waited for him to show up.  The killer fought back and was
> fatally shot.
> 
> A month ago, CSI New York had the detectives investigating the case of a
> contract killer who picked her clients online according to who sent out
> inflamatory remarks.  The detectives lured the killer by sending out
> their own inflamatory messages and waited for her to contact them.  They
> arranged a time to meet but she got suspicious and ran. The detectives
> followed, she fought back and she was fatally shot.
> 
> Superfreaks Season 3 #12 was posted on January 9th of this year,  That
> was during the writer's strike.  This CSI New York came out a month ago.
>  It was part of a new crop of episodes that was written after the
> writer's strike.  We know for a fact that the script for this episode
> had not been written prior to the writer's strike because if it had been
> it would have been filmed during the writer's strike and not after.
> 
> There are a few differences.  First of all, my killer had mutant powers
> and theirs was merely highly skilled.  Second, their killer was
> contacting her clients online and was making a living this way: she was
> not motivated by a desire to kill people who post inflamatory remarks. 
> Finally, my killer was using usenet and their killer was using msn
> messaging.  As usenet is searchable and msn messaging is not (and is, in
> fact, supposed to be private), they had to have their killer use a
> spyware program that would infect people's computers and have it send
> her a message whenever the user would type key words like "dead", "kill"
> or "hate".  It would make sense if they had started with something
> simple like usenet and then moved to msn messager because viewers would
> be more familiar with msn messager and spyware than with usenet. 
> Otherwise, the two stories play out in the exact same way.
> 
> This has happened to me before,  Back when I first started writing LNH
> stories, I created a character named Julie and had her be Deja Dude's
> girlfriend.  She was Chinese.  They eventually broke up.  Julie moved on
> when she met Philip Martin, a man who looked exactly like Deja Dude.
> 
> Within a year, the TV show Friends introduced a new character also named
> Julie.  She became Ross' girlfriend.  She was Chinese.  They eventually
> broke up.  Julie moved on when she met Russ, a man who looked exactly
> like Ross.
> 
> Eerie, isn't it?
> 
> Oh and in an old rec.arts.comics.xbooks thread I suggested that they
> could do a new series with new students based out of Massechusetts
> Academy with Emma Frost as the headmistress.  A few years later,
> Generation X came out.
> 
> Do you ever get the feeling somebody might be out there reading your
> posts and not telling you?

It happens to me a lot, but since half the time it happens with stuff I 
never actually posted or told anyone, I just shrug and attribute it to 
the collective unconscious, gestalt, or just plain weirdness.  (There is 
a reason my WC is called Weirdness Magnet.  If I ever write an 
autobiography, I bet the NYT will put it in their fiction list.)

best,
                                               Lalo Martins
-- 
      So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
       then they seem improbable, and then, when we
       summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
                           -----
                  http://lalomartins.info/
GNU: never give up freedom              http://www.gnu.org/