Life, imitating ... well, you know

 ... in which the Blob begs your indulgence to make a brief detour into the muck-encrusted hellhole of American politics, seeing how there's a presidential election coming up in about three weeks.

Let's start with this: I am a devoted Stephen King fan.

Been one of his Constant Readers since I picked up a copy of "'Salem's Lot" almost 50 years ago, and it scared me so bad it gave me the heebie-jeebies to read it alone at night in my apartment. It also reeled me in completely, and now I've read a good chunk of everything he's churned out since.

Fast forward to the other day, when King observed that he unknowingly made Donald Trump a character in one of this books four decades ago, before anyone outside New York had barely heard of him. The book was "The Dead Zone." King named the would-be Trump character Greg Stillson, a raving demagogue with a cult-like following who was so outlandish you suspected King deliberately crafted him as a cartoon.

Well. Not so much, apparently.

Now the cartoon is very real, in a way King admits he never dreamed possible. And that makes him far more scary than any dark invention the Master of Horror has ever dreamed up.

That hit home a week or so ago, when Trump was spouting his usual nonsense up in Michigan and said this: "If I return to office I will cut electricity and energy prices by half within my first year!"

Something about that rang a bell. And then it dawned on me: It sounded very much like a line King had Greg Stillson say while on the campaign trail.

From "The Dead Zone," second paragraph, page 289 in the paperback edition:

"Third board!" Stillson roared. "... We're gonna have clean air and we're gonna have clean water and we're gonna have it in SIX MONTHS!"

Stillson as Trump. Trump as Stillson. Same tone, same loony promises, almost exactly the same rhythm and wording, 44 years apart.

If that doesn't make you shiver a little, you're a better man or woman than me. Or perhaps your mind doesn't run the same wild channels mine does.

Consider that a blessing, if so. Trust me.