fakesteve

1. Focus. FSJ hits Sun, Forbes, and other financial or board topics a lot (Jerry York?). That gives the feel of someone with ties or grudges in those areas. There's actually very little on using Macs. AI's much more user/everyman-focused.
2. Tone. AI's said his favorite author is Wodehouse, and that shows. His stuff is nice, almost twee, and he prefers circumlocutionary backhanded fulminations with obscure references over quick frontal assaults. "Frigtard" and worse would be a tectonic shift for him.
3. Career. AI's Sun-Times column and Wiley series are good freelance gigs. FSJ's fake stories are hilarious tangos with libelousness. If someone's lawyer got itchy, managing to sue and out AI, it's a lot of reputation at risk even if the public-figure defense eventually held. I doubt his publishers would appreciate the value of the satire - especially if it weren't making them money. His Apple access might also dry up. FSJ is probably someone with less to lose, or more to fall back on.
4. Mistakes. FSJ's deliberate mistakes are funny, too funny for a good humorist to correct or apologize for the way he does. He also has a casual way with quotation marks and run-on sentences. Even AI's most slapdash blog posts have damn good grammar and he tends to trust readers to understand ridiculous exaggeration.

I'm not saying the leopard can't change its spots, but changing these would be a lot of effort, for what? FSJ's identity isn't as interesting as his output. Let's not kill the golden goose.

sunningwell

I find it amazing how so many people claim to like reading FSJ yet want to "unmask" him, knowing full well that the very unmasking will *stop* the person who is FSJ from continuing.

Are you people *really* that thickheaded? What's wrong with simply leaving FSJ be? I think a lot of it is jealousy - FSJ is funny, popular and original and a lot of so-called "journalists" are none of the above so they want to cut him down to *their* level.

ShawnKing

Fixyourthinking

Figaro

twig