February 01, 2008

Mascot Monday Returns... On CBS 3!

If you've been reading this site for a while, you may remember Mascot Monday, the Good Day Philadelphia segment where the anchors danced with mascots. (All of the old clips have been taken down by noted fascists YouTube, it seems.) The last Mascot Monday that we have data for took place on July 17, 2006.

But never fear! As you can see above, CBS 3 today launched Phunky Phanatic Phriday, where each week an anchor will dance with the Phillie Phanatic. The greatest Mascot Monday of all time featured the Phillie Phanatic, so it's not a bad one to get, uh, inspiration from.

In the first episode, sports anchor Ukee Washington dances with the Phanatic and an "assistant," Amanda. At the end of the month, you'll get to vote on which anchor gets to dance on top of the dugout with the Phanatic. There... really are no words. Maybe "mascot dancing" is a typical part of a morning show now, like weather and sports. Seriously, what the phuck?

Posted by D-Mac at 11:20 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

April 24, 2007

Hot¹ Penn Columnist Fired For Plagiarism

Ahh, college columnists. You guys crack me up with your righteousness, your fluffy column topics, your ridiculous headshots (note: a link to my old headshot was supposed to go here, but I couldn't find it), your wordiness and your plagiarism.

Aww, yeah! That last one isn't the usual for college columnists, but the Daily Pennsylvanian's Jamie France was fired from the paper for copying portions of her column "All-nighters: A survival guide" from "9 Top Caffeine Fixes," found on Yahoo! Food in March.

Apparently, "copying" parts of your article is verboten in journalism, even collegiate journalism. (The correct way is to blockquote your "copied" text it and then add spiteful comments afterward.) Both articles cite nine different drinks to keep yourself awake, and the column and the charticle are exactly the same.

But maybe the DP's editors should have noticed something was a bit off with France's column. To wit, number eight:

8. Spike Shooter: Desperate times call for desperate measures. I've personally never heard of it, but any 8.4-oz .can that can house 300 mg of caffeine without a single calorie has my approval. Note the label that reads, "Don't drink if under 18," and "Drink only half a can at a time."

I've "personally never heard" of this drink, which is why I recommend it. Thanks, Yahoo! Food!

¹ Unlike other media outlets, Philadelphia Will Do gets to the meat of the issue right away -- often in the first word of the headline. And, so, judging from her column photo, Jamie France is indeed what they call "hot."

Daily Pennsylvanian Orders Venti No-Foam Chai Plagiarism Latte [IvyGate]
Jamie France | All-nighters: A survival guide [Daily Pennsylvanian]
9 Top Caffeine Fixes [Yahoo! Food]

Posted by D-Mac at 11:42 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

July 11, 2006

'Daily News' Commits One Of The 'Greatest Injustices'

This is a little Daily News correction we somehow managed to miss yesterday, but Regret the Error picked up the slack:

On Friday, June 30, the Daily News published an op-ed, "The N-word, a never-ending obstacle," by Carlton R. Manley, who has been a frequent contributor to our letters page. We subsequently discovered that the piece had been plagiarized from noted writer Anthony Asadullah Samad.

To have one's words stolen by another is one of the greatest injustices that can occur to a writer. We regret that Anthony Asadullah Samad had to suffer that injustice.

That last paragraph is fantastic. Regret The Error also noted that the Manley had 20 letters published in the DN since 2003. The blog's editor, Craig Silverman, has also contacted Samad to ask how much was plagarized. Cue the ominous music, the Drudge Report siren and let's go all together now... DEVELOPING...

Correction 7.10.06 [Daily News]
Philly Daily News runs plagiarized op-ed [Regret The Error]

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April 25, 2006

How Shameful Joy Can Help You Get A Life, Get Kissed, And Give You A Nice Easy Blog Entry Topic

Yesterday, I noted that I wasn't feeling much, if any, schadenfreude over the resignation and coming jailing of Rick Mariano. Well I've come to tell youse all today with a simple retort: Fuck that.

You see, this morning we're feeling so much schadenfreude we're speaking in the third person and we've copied the word "schadenfreude" so we can keep using it over and over without accidentally spelling it wrong. Schadenfreude, schadenfreude, schadenfreude. See how fun it is?

Oh, so why are we feeling this way? Two things, mainly. First is a national story, one you may have heard about. Harvard sophomore -- and we're going to have to be copying and pasting this too -- Kaavya Viswanathan's first novel, How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life (which she got a $500,000 advance for), happened to not be entirely her work. Specifically, she seemed to have copied passages from two works, Sloppy Firsts and Second Helpings, by Megan McCaffrey McCafferty.

Of course, then she came out and said she merely "internalized" the earlier novels. Oh, sure. That's it.

After that lame-o non-apology, she can only get into more trouble now. Hence the extreme schadenfreude we're feeling today.

The other story we're feeling kind of happy about today is that of Devonzo Dawson, who was arrested yesterday. He was arrested for, oh, telling his daughter that she didn't see anything right before she went to the witness stand.

And not only is that witness intimidation, that's bold witness intimidation. And really effing stupid witness intimidation. And we happen to think it's kind of funny he got arrested. And we're feeling a lot of schadenfreude today.

Ahh, that felt good.

Student's Novel Faces Plagiarism Controversy [Harvard Crimson]
After duplicated words, words of apology [Boston Globe]
Witness' father is charged over her recanting [Inky]
Yesterday: Denoument: Rick Mariano
March 8: Stop snitchin': The saga continues

Posted by D-Mac at 10:22 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)