{"id":3399,"date":"2005-06-27T16:16:26","date_gmt":"2005-06-27T23:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/06\/27\/imitation-flattery-and-all-that-jazz\/"},"modified":"2019-12-16T16:10:12","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T00:10:12","slug":"imitation-flattery-and-all-that-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2005\/06\/27\/imitation-flattery-and-all-that-jazz\/","title":{"rendered":"Imitation, Flattery, and All That Jazz&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:8011,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cafepress.com\\\/michaelhanscom&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.cafepress.com\\\/michaelhanscom&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8012,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/12264261&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.flickr.com\\\/photos\\\/djwudi\\\/12264261&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8013,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.livejournal.com\\\/users\\\/ewedistrict\\\/276574.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8014,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/store.northshoreshirts.com\\\/ind.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20241014112421\\\/https:\\\/\\\/store.northshoreshirts.com\\\/ind.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 03:49:41&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:46&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8015,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8016,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/store.northshoreshirts.com\\\/imjuhetogetl.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20241114201130\\\/http:\\\/\\\/store.northshoreshirts.com\\\/imjuhetogetl.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 03:49:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:47&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8017,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\\\/northshoreshirts&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260310035548\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\\\/northshoreshirts\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\\\/northshoreshirts\\\/&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8018,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\\\/northshoreshirts\\\/?p=22&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20051023153630\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.thenyoudiscover.com:80\\\/northshoreshirts\\\/?p=22&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-10 03:49:55&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-06 03:28:48&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8019,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.cafepress.com\\\/stuct\\\/448917&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.cafepress.com\\\/stuct\\\/448917&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8020,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/upyourtee.com\\\/Merchant2\\\/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&amp;Store_Code=UTW&amp;Product_Code=UYLAIDBL&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I suppose I should consider myself flattered &#8212; either that, or there&#8217;s a rather surprising coincidence going on. <ins>Update:<\/ins> Coincidence! See the end of this post for more&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/10\/would_you_buy_t.html\" title=\"Eclecticism: Would you buy this shirt?\">October of 2003<\/a>, I dreamed up my &#8220;I&#8217;m just here to get laid&#8221; t-shirt and put it up on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/michaelhanscom\" title=\"CafePress: Michael Hanscom's Useless Schwag\">CafePress<\/a>, where it&#8217;s sold a whopping&#8230;um&#8230;five. Maybe.<\/p>\n<p>One of the things about CafePress I&#8217;m not terribly fond of is that they don&#8217;t offer white-on-black merchandise, so for my birthday on May 3rd of this year, I had a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/djwudi\/12264261\/\" title=\"One year of hair!\">white-on-black version<\/a> of the shirt custom made. Since then, I&#8217;ve worn it around town from time to time, both to the Vogue and to the major festivals (Folklife, Fremont Solstice, and Pride), where it&#8217;s gotten a lot of good laughs.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier today, thanks to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.livejournal.com\/users\/ewedistrict\/276574.html\" title=\"ewedistrict: Human Rights Campaign, Gay Pride Parade, Seattle, WA\">comment in Brandon&#8217;s LiveJournal<\/a> (where I&#8217;m described <em>very<\/em> accurately and amusingly as &#8220;the kilt wearing skinny dude&#8221;) that <a href=\"http:\/\/store.northshoreshirts.com\/ind.html\" title=\"North Shore Shirts\">North Shore Shirts<\/a> (an offshoot of the local weblog <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\/\" title=\"Then You Discover\">Then You Discover<\/a>) is selling <a href=\"http:\/\/store.northshoreshirts.com\/imjuhetogetl.html\" title=\"North Shore Shirts: I'm just here to get laid...\">a shirt that looks very familiar<\/a> (aside from using a different font and ending with an ellipsis rather than a period). According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\/northshoreshirts\" title=\"North Shore Shirts Weblog\">store weblog<\/a>, their shirt was introduced <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thenyoudiscover.com\/northshoreshirts\/?p=22\" title=\"North Shore Shirts Weblog: Newsletter and Bad T-shirts\">on May 30th of this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, my first reaction was to get a little peeved &#8212; but then, I&#8217;m also running on about three hours of sleep today, and my temper can flare up pretty easily &#8212; but wasn&#8217;t too long before I just thought it was funny. Now, it is entirely possible that it&#8217;s nothing more than a remarkable coincidence that another Seattle weblogger would come up with a near-duplicate idea&#8230;but if it isn&#8217;t a coincidence, then I&#8217;ll settle for flattery.<\/p>\n<p>Besides &#8212; they obviously have the ability to actually create and sell these things without resorting to CafePress or the like, which I don&#8217;t have the ability to do. A pity, too&#8230;after the number of compliments I&#8217;ve gotten on the shirt, I was starting to poke around various shirt printing sites to see what it would take to make a batch to sell myself. Looks like North Shore beat me to it!<\/p>\n<p>So &#8212; if you think the shirt is funny, and would be satisfied with a fair-to-middling quality black-on-white CafePress version, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/michaelhanscom\" title=\"CafePress: Michael Hanscom's Useless Schwag\">pick one up here<\/a> and I&#8217;ll get a whole dollar (ooooohhhhh&#8230;) for each one ordered. On the other hand, if you&#8217;d prefer a high-quality (I&#8217;m assuming) white-on-black version (and cheaper than CafePress, to boot), you can <a href=\"http:\/\/store.northshoreshirts.com\/imjuhetogetl.html\" title=\"North Shore Shirts: I'm just here to get laid...\">pick it up from North Shore Shirts<\/a>, and I&#8217;ll get&#8230;um&#8230;the satisfaction of helping them out with their sales. Yeah. That&#8217;s it! ;)<\/p>\n<p>(Oh, and North Shore&#8230;if this <em>is<\/em> all coincidence, then I like your sense of humor. If it <em>isn&#8217;t<\/em> coincidence, is there any chance I could get an &#8220;idea by&#8230;&#8221; or &#8220;inspired by&#8230;&#8221; link on that shirt&#8217;s page?)<\/p>\n<p><ins>Update:<\/ins> Word from Mikey at North Shore is that, as I said was very possible, it&#8217;s just a coincidence. She also pointed out that there are at least <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cafepress.com\/stuct\/448917\" title=\"That's Just Wrong: I'm just here to get laid.\">two<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/upyourtee.com\/Merchant2\/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&amp;Store_Code=UTW&amp;Product_Code=UYLAIDBL\" title=\"Up Your Tee: I'm just here to get laid.\">other<\/a> variations of the idea floating around out there.<\/p>\n<p>Guess I&#8217;m not as creative as I&#8217;d like to think. ;)<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully there&#8217;s no hard feelings left behind (I did recommend their shirts over mine, after all)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then I suppose I should consider myself flattered &#8212; either that, or there&#8217;s a rather surprising coincidence going on. <ins title=\"6\/28\/05 5pm\">Update:<\/ins> Coincidence! See the end of this post for more&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2043],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-3399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personal","tag-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}