When I was doing my column, I wrote a localized variant of Saroyan's "The Phantom Flivver" as a folk tale of Brooklyn. A couple of months later, I was reading "Body, Boots and Britches," a collection of New York State folklore and found a related tale from the Tappan Zee area of the lower Hudson.

Another time, I wrote a tale in response to some problems Clearwater was having with green wood. A few years later, some of us did a benefit for the AJ Meerwald. As a thank-you, we were given a sail on Meerwald and I was told a tale that actually occurred that was parallel to the one I made up.

One of my great frustrations has been that there are so few original stories available. Be proud. It ain't theft--it's research.