What the hell is up with midwestern cops this week? First they steal your pot (and don't even know what to do with themselves once they have it), and then they steal your play ideas and book it to L.A. for theatre amateur-hour. Is there something in the water up there, or what?

Detective Herman was busted, in particular, for his "interpretation" of Edmonton playwright David Belke's The Reluctant Resurrection of Sherlock Holmes, written in 1992 but produced in his hometown as recently as last year. I'm trying to imagine what it must feel like, discovering someone else claiming your work as their own like that, but it's just too horrible. The poor guy.

And it would have been enough to have stopped with just the one play. I mean, he might have been able to explain it away just a little bit better, I'd think. Everyone has overlapping ideas sometimes, right? But it seems that the siren song of Canadian playwrights was just too overwhelming, because he's now suspected of pinching from two other Canadian writers as well. I guess Detective Herman got a little confused and thought that "what happens across the border, stays across the border" was a real law and not just an unwritten code of conduct.

Whoops. Maybe that "word for word" thing was a bad idea. The funny thing is that he probably would have gotten away with it, if not for his meddling friend. See, it's entirely possible that what happens in Ohio stays in Ohio, but only the biggest fool imaginable would think that anything happening in Los Angeles might stay.

Wow, why so reluctant, Herman? What a genius.

One would think that he might be a little more secretive about his plagiarism -- seeing as he's a detective and all, I'd have pegged him to be a little more paranoid about getting found out. But I guess that's more Officer Pothead's jurisdiction. Now Detective Herman's got all the real life drama he can hold on a plate. He says he stole the play to keep his amateur theater troupe alive, but one can only speculate on its fate now. Hope it was worth it.