Letters to the Editor
prytania
Published Letters: 112 Editor's Choice: 5
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Peter Hassett: Cultural Literacy, Allusion
[Read the article: The "plagiarism" problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here](And I am just a lowly English prof. MLA-style rocks.)
Your two examples are familiar enough that they require no citation. No literate person is likely to think that you have come up with "better angels" if you quote Lincoln and Shakespeare's neologisms, like a gazillion others you could name, have entered into the general vocabulary.
I'd mention also that "Where's the beef?" (among other pop culture tags) required no citation because no one would have thought that Mondale had thought up the phrase himself. If you start a speech with a snarky look and a snotty "Mission accomplished?!," you needn't cite.
Immature politicians borrow; mature politicians steal--now there's a principle I could stand beside.
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I'm troubled that the "plagiarism" message might be a subtle attempt at equating Obama with MLK and marginalizing him racially, as was attempted through a similar equation to Jesse Jackson in South Carolina.
[Read the article: The "plagiarism" problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. I think that MLK might be the kind of comparison that most people would happily accept.
2. But I agree: we might be seeing the beginning of one of those different-standards-for-different-folks deals--as in, Here's a great excuse for Chris and Bill and Sean to bring up whether African-Americans with their MLK dissertations and hippity-hop get by with this kind of petty theft (and Hey! That reminds all of you [white] voters that Obama is sort of black, doesn't it?)
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Number Six
[Read the article: The "plagiarism" problem]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]"Obama did not plagarise Patrick. He paraphrased. There is a difference."
No, there is not a difference. Paraphrase also requires attribution--just not quotation marks.
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So will Kirk Watson publish a "What I Should Have Said to Chris Matthews" piece in tomorrow's "Salon"?
[Read the article: "Name some of Barack Obama's legislative accomplishments ... if you can" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Like what's-her-name from last week, he goes into the lion's den apparently unaware that there's a lion.
Matthews is, as others have suggested, a mega-tool, a supra-dick. But he is predictable. Plan for him or stay away.
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"the Democrat party"
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What??!!
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There is no God blah blah blah blah
[Read the article: How to turn white evangelicals into Democrats]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Flying spaghetti monster blah blah blah blah.
Delusional fundies blah blah blah blah.
Prove it blah.
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Awwww, ratshit!
[Read the article: Anonymous no more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I have been posting as Anonymous for over a year mainly because it pissed off Garry Owen and his bodacious buddy be-bop.
Where are the dos amigos anyway?
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#%&@
[Read the article: Curious George]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What the #%&@ was on your mind when you put a cuss word from Beetle Bailey on your front page?
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Things you used to read in Salon
[Read the article: Anonymous no more]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]1. "If you had the courage of your convictions, you wouldn't post anonymously."
2. "I won't dignify your post with a response, Anon, since you don't have the guts to post them under your own name."
3. "What Anonymous @ 3:13 meant, Anonymous @ 4:27, is that Anonymous @ 6:47 is a tool."
4. "Oh, yeah. Like 'prytania' is your real name. We're ALL anonymous."
5. Anonymice, Anonymoose, Anonymorons.
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What popular culture teaches us
[Read the article: Obama should be proud to be named Hussein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The reason William Jefferson Clinton was proud of his middle name was that it immediately identified him as our first black president. (Jefferson = George and Weezie.)
And Sidney is indeed a homosexual name--it was the name of Tony Randall's first-gay-character on tv.
I think if Barack H. Obama were to mention that to Sidney McCain in a debate, the vein in Sidney's temple would explode and take out the first three rows of spectators.
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You get to choose what people call you
[Read the article: Obama should be proud to be named Hussein]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Naming gives others ownership of you. If you can't say, Sorry, not my name, you've been claimed.
My first presidential vote was for Jimmy Carter, not James Earl. That was his decision.
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"Everyone is a critic I guess."
[Read the article: "Semi-Pro"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Yes, everybody is a critic. If you say "That movie sucks," you're a bad critic. If you say "That movie sucks because. . . ," you're on your way to being a good critic.
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Wikipedia as (free) vanity press?
[Read the article: Don't press the Wikipedia delete button]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But isn't the "almost cruelty" of deletion one way of urging the writer of a genuinely good article to try other, more traditional and more permanent, modes of publication first (even if the "more traditional" mode is an edited, perhaps peer-reviewed webzine)?
The question is whether Wikipedia, like the user reviews at Amazaon et al., has turned into an engine for self-publishing--one without the economic gateway of the vanity presses of old.
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One reason "Anonymous" was a good option
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While the substance of the following seems accurate enough to me, the mode of response--"Nertz to you, Newbie! I researched your ass!"--is facile:
"Go harass some billygoats, troll
Hi HRCin08! Congratulations on taking 30 seconds to set up a Salon account. I see that this is your first comment. The rest of us who have been here for a while really appreciate you stopping by to spam our messageboards with propaganda for your fast-fading candidate. It really shows the Clinton campaign's commitment to grassroots organizing. I hope you'll swing back by again on Wednesday with a bunch of excuses for why your candidate failed to make up any ground against Obama the night before."
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Wow. Did I miss the word "Kerry" in all the letters posted above?
[Read the article: Obama hits back at Clinton ad]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While the Obama ad directly addresses the attack from the Clinton campaign, it indirectly, and more powerfully for the subtlety, addresses 2004 and Democrats' lingering antipathy toward Senator "Ready for Duty."
It's not just about "Who's ready for the 3 a.m. call?" It's about "No way do you swiftboat me, McCain and company."
Bring. It. On.
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De gustibus etc.
[Read the article: "Semi-Pro"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I remember having a mildly amusing time watching Wedding Crashers. Then Will Ferrell made his unannounced cameo. Most of the audience chortled just by looking at him. But I actually heard a few sad people groaning, and one of them was me.
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Have You Ever Been George Carlin?
[Read the article: Curious George]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Why, yes. yes, I have. I was George Carlin for a week back in '87. So I have the right to "dis" him.
Right after that I was Snoop Dogg for a day and a half. So watch out, Snoop.
And, of course, I was President Bush for one semester of grad school. (Boy, did my grades suffer!) So I have the right to dis him.
What sucks is that I have not yet been a white whale. So don't bother asking me what I think about Moby-Dick.
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Not what "vanity press" means
[Read the article: Don't press the Wikipedia delete button]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Not self-promotion, but rather self-publishing.
I.e., is Wikipedia a new technology that takes the place of the more expensive printing press, mimeograph, photocopier, etc., that self-publishers have used over the years.
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So long, Locutus
[Read the article: Opus]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It appears that Garry and his posse have ridden off into the sunset, leaving a counterfeit be-bop behind to blather (as beep-beep would) and misspell Garry's name (as boop-boop-be-doop would not have).