On Jan 25, 9:05*pm, "~^ beancounter ~^" wrote:
On Thursday evening, The Plain Dealer's Sabrina Eaton reported on
"Ellie Light," who'd had virtually identical letters to the editor
published in newspapers around the country, with most of them claiming
a different hometown in each paper's circulation area.

Ellie Light responded to the report in a comment, saying "There was
lots to write about this week, for example Teddy Kennedy' seat falling
to a Republican, or the Supreme Court's ruling allowing corporations
to donate unlimited funds to causes they support. Both those events
portend unimaginable consequences for democracy in this country. And
Ms. Eaton, a "Washington" journalist, decides to spend a few minutes
pasting snippets of letters into Google and come up with a story about
a letter writer."

Since then, others have followed the trail of the Ellie Light letter.
The blog Patterico's Pontifications seems to have the most
comprehensive list so far. To the dozen or so originall listed, the
blog adds several dozen more, including the Stamford (Conn.) Advocate
and the Gainesville (Ga.) Times. The letter has even appeared
overseas, including in the Bangkok Post. And now there's a Facebook
fan page for her.

In most letters, Light claims a nearby hometown. But in letters
published in two papers that have a broader audience -- the Washington
Times and USA Today -- her address is listed as Long Beach, Calif.
That's the same city used in a letter to the Daily Breeze in
California.

Commenters have questioned the coincidence of so many papers deciding
to publish this one letter out of all those they've received. However,
most of the letters have appeared in smaller papers, where competition
for published letters is not as high. And Politico.com's Ben Smith,
who in an unusual decision had published the Ellie Light letter in ful
himself, wrote at the time that her words " seemed to crystallize a
point his supporters have been trying to make for a while."

Idiot.

g.