Three years ago, I claimed a word. I coined a phrase. A few weeks ago, I saw a Finnish version of the word in a paper. Was I the first one, really, or did somebody else’s brain produce a similar gem?

I’m sure it was the latter.

Every now and then I bump into song lyrics or phrases in the paper that I truly, genuinely, believe I have come up with.

Back in 1986, I was walking home with my cousin, by the river where the old bridge guard’s house is, when I made a joke about somebody being so fat that “you could see his cheeks from behind.” I’m not saying this was particularly funny, or classy, but I am saying that I told him that, and I am also 100 percent sure I hadn’t heard anyone ever use a phrase like that.

Two years later, the biggest single of the year was Eppu Normaali’s Baarikärpänen – Barfly – with a line like this: 



“If the cheeks ain’t showing from behind who should get the blame/well, obviously, welfare office’s been irresponsible”

Did I start that? Had my wisecrack gone viral? Or had the cheeks been in the zeitgeist?

I’ll never know.