"Me Pop Culture Petri Dish, You Jane Schmo"

Oh. My. God. I've just stumbled upon the single greatest discovery of my year-and-a-half long blogging career. Actually, I should say the single greatest discovery stumbled upon my blog.

I was browsing through some old posts, deleting spammer's comments, when I read a comment that at first didn't make sense to me. In response to Alex's suggestion that "we should cast a serious Law and Order-y drama with nothing but Joe Schmo alumni", somebody wrote: "If so... can I play? -The original Jane."

I re-read the comment. An idea popped into my head... but it couldn't be. I clicked on Sober in the City's profile. Nothing in there indicated that this was the profile of a reality tv goddess... and really, wouldn't a reality tv goddess make that abundantly clear in her profile? I moved on to her co-op blog anyway. At the top of the page it said something about "a former reality TV 'er' working in fundraising." My hopes were now officially up. But I needed something more solid...

And then I found it. This post. This fascinating post. This fascinating, witty, well-written, at times heart-breaking post. If you have any love in your heart for The Joe Schmo Show, this post is a must read, though I have to warn you, it kind of strips away the magic and makes the brilliant producers and actors look like Joe Schmucks. It's sad to see that the star of the show didn't have nearly as good a time with it as we, the viewers, did.

Still, I've now discovered the blog of Ingrid Wiese - original Jane Schmo and #2 on the list of My Top Ten Biggest Reality Infatuations Ever (though after reading her profile, her posts, her columns for the college newspaper and her comment on this very blog, I'm officially moving her up to #1, even though I apparently fall outside her desired age bracket). If I could hug the Internet right now, I would (that is, if I wasn't afraid I might catch something).

Now #1: I'd give her a pearl necklace in a heartbeat