Inspiration or Coincidence?

Back in April jmaynard and I attended Penguicon. Orvan made a delivery (two actually) to howardtayler. And, of course, I also met Howard.

Howard's latest book arrived this week, The Tub of Happiness. In this book is a bonus story that didn't appear in the Schlock Mercenary comic on-line. When Jay read it he commented that Howard was channeling me. And later I read the story and noticed something else. Either, or both, could be coincidence, but even if so, they are amusing to me.

First, some backstory for the channeling: I do not like buttermilk. Jay does. He claims it is yummy. I claim it stinks and induces gagging. This back-and-forth has resulted in my stating that "Buttermilk doesn't go bad. It only goes worse." as it starts out bad.

In the story, Howard has a character use a similar line about a dairy(-like?) product, "It can't go bad. It only goes worse." (Page 5, strip 3, final panel if you have the book) Now I am trying to recall if I said that line in front of Howard. It is possible, but I just can't recall.

The other thing is that in the first strip on the second page there is a parcel. A rather plain cardboard looking parcel, with a label. A yellow label with black writing: FRAGILE. Now, where have I seen a black on yellow label on a cardboard box before?

I can't say for sure that I was directly (or even indirectly) responsible for either of the things I noticed for sure. But they do have me wondering.