Ask Seattlest: Can I Answer Dan Savage's Questions?

Hey, Seattlest!

Can I just pick a question Dan Savage answered in "Savage Love" and answer it myself? If anyone asks, I'll claim I "solicited questions from friends." I read his column every week -- I must be a friend, right? :)

Does the phrase "offer your resignation" mean anything to you? Basically, you want to know if it's OK to steal from another columnist to promote your own. And you know that it's wrong, or you'd just admit it from the start and not involve your poor hypothetical friends. No one's going to believe you didn't know it was a breach of journalistic ethics.

People will find out. Even if, by some miracle, your editor doesn't catch it, someone will run a Google search. Ethical questions will be raised. Your advice career will last, at most, one column.

Finally, if you must, must, must rip off letters from an advice columnist, try using a column that isn't syndicated to alt-weeklies across the country. Maybe try Anka Radakovich columns from early '90s issues of Details.

Hope this advice catches you in time! Seriously, just poll your friends or run an ad on Craigslist or something. Dan Savage may hear from a lot of pervs out there, but the universe's supply must be almost infinite, so we're sure you won't have to resort to plagiarism. Good luck!

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