You know what my favorite recurring theme from the long running television series Cheers was?
It was when they would involve a not-so-friendly rivalry with the other bar in Boston — which happened to be Gary’s Olde Town Tavern. It was nice to see some competition between the two establishments and the camaraderie that everyone would have — even characters like Cliff — when it came down to defending the honor of Cheers. But I always just got a kick out of how everyone at Gary’s would, when he entered their bar as well, shout out “NORM!” in the same way that they would do at Cheers.
Today I got my first taste of what could be described as my own Cheers / Gary’s Old Towne Tavern rivalry.
It’s not really a rivalry as much as another entity. And by entity I mean someone else’s blog. Someone of whom I’ve heard around the blogosphere but never got around to adding to my feed reader. Someone who everyone thinks is witty and clever. Someone whose name was mentioned in the same sentence as mine, in fact, of people to follow on Twitter who can make you laugh.
I simply had never gotten around to following the tweets of or reading the blog belonging to LeSomber.*
Until today. After some coaxing from a blog buddy who told me how much we were alike and how I would love his blog so much. (If I could find it. He has decided to forgo the “.com” suffix in favor of something far more obscure.)
And you know what? After reading more about him, I discovered that we are eerily alike in many ways! For example:
- Both of us are called Mike
- We both live in capital cities of our respective countries.
- Both of us absolutely despise loud chewers
- Favorite song for both of us by 80s pop group Nu Shooz — “B-b-b-b-baby, I-I-I Can’t Wait.”
- We both like to relax in front of a nice fire, snuggled under a blanket — with a Tim Horton’s cinnamon cruller in one had and a piping hot prostitute in the other.
- We concur that Rick Mercer has a slightly abnormally large head.
I was a bit taken aback, however, when I looked at his blog — because I found that he had many readers who reply to his witty blog entries with comments. And those commenters? Many of them are the same folks who comment on my blog! (Which you can read at http://www.shinystakeout.com.) I feel like you’ve all been spreading your allegiances. You have two communities yelling “NORM!” when you enter their domains. The analogy, in fact, is just like Cheers — in that he provides a slightly more upscale environment where he blogs more frequently and takes the time to respond to your comments, and I simply have a Woody.
Perhaps it’s simply an awakening for me: I had heard that this other Mike was great. Great writer. Funny. Friendly. Consistent. Is this someone with whom I can keep up? Now that I know that you all are shopping around for your blog content needs and I see the quality which LeSomber provides — will my content pale in comparison? Will I, in essence, simply become a redundant Mike who blogs?
I can tell you this much: Not on my watch.
Consider this an open declaration, Mr. LeSomber: I will not let you make me redundant. I will read your blog regularly. And, in doing so, I will motivate myself to bring more of the funny to my blog. I’ll even try to reply to comments more often. We’re living in a trying time where people have to make tough choices, and I’m not going to let me be decided out of the blogosphere.
I will not let me become the redundant Mike.
I do have to give kudos to this LeSomber fellow, though. He doesn’t stoop so low as to fill the content on his page with witty sitcom clips off of YouTube:
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* I am aware that he spells the name of his blog differently. Out of respect for my country, however, I have decided to use the traditional United States of American spelling.