The problem with stealing someone’s thunder is this: You’ve been walking down the street and saw the thunder laying there on the dining room table, nobody in sight, and thought, “I can use that!” So you sneak in, pick up the thunder, and just as you are sneaking back out of the house, Someone comes home and sees you walking off with their thunder.
There are two things you can do at this point: You can try to hold on to the thunder and hope nobody notices that it’s actually Someone’s and not yours. Or you can drop the thunder and run like a scared rabbit.
The problem with holding on to the thunder is that you’ll always be getting questions like “Isn’t that Someone’s thunder? What are you doing with it?” Or, “How pathetic are you that you couldn’t get your own thunder?” Add that to the fact that Someone is far better at using their thunder than you are, because they’ve had it for a while and you haven’t, and it can make for an embarrassing situation.
On the other hand, dropping the thunder and running doesn’t exactly cover one in glory either. It’s easy to say things like “All I wanted to do was make sure the world had thunder, so it doesn’t matter to me if I bring it to them or if Someone does,” but that’s a complete lie. One doesn’t go into the thunder business without a certain amount of hubris. I mean come on, Prometheus could have just waited for the gods to give everyone fire, but he didn’t. The fact that he got his liver pecked out every day for millennia does give one pause, however.
So you eventually have three options:
- Try to hold on to the thunder and realize that you will be living in the shadow of Someone and his much greater mastery of the thunder
- Drop the thunder and run back to your comfortable home
- Give up on an increasingly strained metaphor
Yes, CARS is back in action with a completely new WordPress theme, a new podcast, and a call for advertising. Which leaves me in a precarious position. I mean, according to all my analytics Ninjas, I’ve got about 15 people who have visited this site more than twice. CARS got that many visits in twenty minutes even when they hadn’t posted anything in over two months. So it’s an uphill battle, if battle it is. It’s entirely possible that the Apple world can handle two comedy blogging sites, but my choice of name makes me a very obvious “me too” underdog. Also, I like CARS. I wouldn’t have started a site called CANS if I didn’t. Moltz is funny and has been for a long time. I have occasional bursts of humor, but it’ll take me some time to find a real groove, my own voice, my own je ne sais quoi, if you will. On the one hand, I’ll look kinda pathetic for a while if I keep it up. On the other hand, it’s a big internet, and there’s room for more Apple jokes out there. On the third hand (don’t ask) I don’t know if I’ll have time to keep writing CANS what with all the really really long CARS podcasts out there that need listened to.
So, not that you care all that much, but CANS will stay on the air (I’m writing this post over a wireless connection) for now. I’ve still got a few good ideas knocking around. Thanks for stopping by. Don’t worry the next post will have more funny and less emo in it. (That should be our new tag line: Now with 20% less emo! And 100% less Elmo!)
Ace Deuce on May 29th, 2008 at 9:10 am says:
As a last resort you could go mainstream with a real-money sponsor, using search-and-replace.
Crazy Snapple News Site.
By the way, Jerry Pournelle often uses the phrase “on the gripping hand” for the the third angle. See the book The Mote in God’s Eye.
Heinz on June 17th, 2008 at 3:19 pm says:
I personally enjoyed watching you stretch that thunder metaphor. Actually, it was kinda kinky.