Fun With Numbers, or Why Does Tim Rogers Pretend He Doesn’t Know Us?

I like to play a game called “Who had it first?” when I’m trying to avoid actual work. It involves looking at time stamps on blogs and news sites to see who really had the dirt before anyone else. Today’s installment features our own hometown gal Merritt Patterson and her (newly appointed?) arch nemesis Tim Rogers. It pertains to the item you see here (Did Hank Kuehne Pop the Question?).

BlackBerry addict Merritt posted her item about the athletic romance this morning at 6:14 (unless she messed with the time stamp, but let’s assume she didn’t for a sec). Rogers had the same content in a post on FrontBurner, but he didn’t have it until 8:56 a.m., and he had the nerve to reference the Chicago Tribune.

Which means that Merritt actually had the story before Rogers knew about it. Overheardians are crying foul because Rogers made no reference to Merritt’s post, and as far as we can tell, she had it first.

I’ve written posts only to discover that someone else had it first, and it’s a horrible feeling. But this evidence is pretty convincing.

Here’s what we need to know: Who tipped off Merritt about the romance? Does Tim Rogers know there is a paper that covers Highland Park and University Park one floor above his office? Does Rogers have Google Alerts for HP and therefore think he doesn’t need to read Overheard? Developing.