Last week in this space, I linked to two articles on the same topic: the sudden abundance of (relative) bargains among sparkling wines from Champagne. Now yet another estimable wine writer, Slate's Mike Steinberger, has weighed in on the topic.
Talk about great minds thinking alike. And while I'm not claiming to have anything approaching a great mind -- "cluttered" might be the most apt descriptor -- I learned something here:
Stop being concerned in any way, shape or form about being accused of purloining story ideas. In the past, I would start writing about a topic, and then if the New York Times' Eric Asimov or the Wall Street Journal couple covered that theme the week before, I'd hold off, fearing that some reader might find it more than a coincidence.
Or I'd tweak my topic and stay away from some advice that I firmly believed in simply because another major outlet had recently used it. Guess what? I'm only depriving Star Tribune readers, not protecting myself, when I do something like that.
I have way more story ideas than newspaper space in which to run them, but that doesn't mean I should hold off on writing something that I consider important and timely out of fear of a bogus "gotcha." And if three of my favorite writers can cover the same subject within a week or so, who am I to say that I should try to stay "above the fray"?
But I'm still glad that I wasn't planning on writing about bargain bubblies this week.
P.S. -- Great sadness accompanied my learning that the aforementioned WSJ wine writers, Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher, would no longer be doing their weekly column. (Here's their last one, which might be subscriber-only.) In a publication that can be more than a little hoity-toity, they wrote eloquently for those of us in the hoi polloi. Here's hoping they find a soft -- and accessible -- place to land.
