Local Boy Makes Good

A sometime Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk commenter who in some places goes by the name JasonF has a story to tell. He was just surfing the Net, minding his own business, when he chanced upon a post over at Balloon Juice. That post, which was on the potential for union busting amid the possible auto industry bailout, triggered something in him, and he was inspired to post a comment. But this was no ordinary comment. No, this was a comment in the form of a three-act play (a very short three-act play, mind you, but a three-act play, nonetheless). Special format comments like that naturally bring attention, and sure enough, JasonF's comment caught the eye of John Cole, proprietor of Balloon Juice. He was so impressed that he took the play and made a post out of it the next day (noting that it originated in comments). Needless to say, JasonF was thrilled.

That's all very exciting, of course, but someone who sometimes comments on my posts being featured on someone else's blog is not usually enough to devote a post to myself. You guessed it--there's more to this story. On Tuesday evening, Rachel Maddow was talking about the very same thing on her MSNBC show, and she mentioned that she'd been reading Balloon Juice (and reading it deeply). She then mentioned the three-act play that one of that blog's commenters had written and proceeded to read the entire third act! (Here's a transcript.) JasonF was even more excited by that. He's achieved an odd, anonymous sort of fame. No one knows who he is, exactly, or quite what he's done, but they know something has happened. It reminds me of the Lone Ranger, actually. Who was that unknown blogger/playwright?

Nice job, Jason!