From an article about school restrictions on Halloween costumes, to protect children against undue fright and other social negatives:

"This is about staying true to our vision and values, and developmentally appropriate practice, not about being politically correct," Ms. Farrington said, citing her own memo on the topic some years ago. "We're about honoring and promoting diversity, not feeding children images of stereotypes."

I vaguely recall attending college in the waning days of the era when people still talked about being "politically correct" as a virtue. Now the phrase is so thoroughly understood to be disparaging that people must deny they are being politically correct even as they describe their policies with a textbook definition of political correctness.

I don't think I need to tell you my own feelings about restrictions on Halloween costumes. (If you do want in on that conversation, here's a good place for it.) But on a media-critique note, I find it very confusing that while there are a few mentions of these demeaning stereotypes that must be avoided, there are no examples of actual costumes that are forbidden under such rules. Are the costumes considered "too sexy" also banned for gender stereotyping? I'm aware there are racist Halloween costumes out there but couldn't the Times name a couple, or run a photo, as they do with the scary/violent costumes? I seriously wonder whether this was just an oversight or if the paper made an intentional decision not to show them because it wanted to be... well, not politically correct, but, another way of saying that.

Oh, and by the way, the monkey costume checked "yes" in the illustration, should actually be checked no for violating one school's "Shoes must be worn" rule.

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1:18 PM :: Comments (3)

"By taking the first letter of each line, beginning with the third line, two words emerge: The first is obscene; the second is 'you.'" - New York Times

"As in, a certain four-letter curse word, followed by its familiar friend 'you.'" - The edgy San Jose Mercury News

"However, a vertical reading of the first left-hand letter in each of the seven lines of the main body of the email suggests that the former Kindergarten Cop actor, who is due to leave office next year, was passing on an altogether less statesmanlike message. It reads: 'F-U-C-K-Y-O-U.'" - The Independent.

Well, at least newspapers in the UK aren't afraid to print the news. Indeed, the Independent went so far as to call out the US reporters for self-censorship. "The California governor yesterday found himself attempting to play down the revelation that a blunt email he sent to one of San Francisco's Democratic Assemblymen contained what US news bulletins have somewhat prudishly described as an 'X-rated rebuke'."

On a side note, many media outlets are grabbing onto the word "acrostic" in order to describe the positioning of the secret message, which is presumably because they all read each others' articles before writing their own.

The Governor's office is denying the message was intentional. I personally don't believe Arnold's message was meant to say "Fuck You". If you look at the letter more carefully, the real message is "I Fuck You", a somehow more obscene phrase which has its own implications.

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10:27 AM :: Comments (0)

Submit the worst possible caption for this New Yorker cartoon.

•Last week's results. •Rules and tips.

First Place:
"I miss my computer." -- Johnny V

Second Place:
"No, I was talking to the asshole in the chair." -- The Confidence Man

Third Place:
"Wait -how many syllables? Sounds like what? This is frustrating." -- Deborah

Honorable Mention:

Continue reading "The New Yorker Cartoon Anti-Caption Contest #214" »

12:46 PM :: Comments (80)

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with all the self-censorship that goes on in today's media. But it wasn't always thus. As Radosh.net Senior Lexicological Correspondent Jesse Sheidlower notes in a recent article for Slate, the New York Times – the Gray Lady herself, so fond these days of reminding us that it is a family newspaper – used to object to this kind of behavior:

In 1966, Jess Stein, the editor-in-chief of the major Random House Dictionary of the English Language, told the New York Times about a meeting he convened with the company's editorial and sales staff to discuss the words cunt and fuck. "When I uttered the words there was a shuffling of feet, and a wave of embarrassment went through the room," he said. "That convinced me the words did not belong in the dictionary, though I'm sure I'll be attacked as a prude for the decision."

Stein did not have to wait long to be proven right on the last point: A mere two weeks later, the Times' own book reviewer wrote, "Unfortunately, a stupid prudery has prevented the inclusion of probably the most widely-used word in the English language. The excuse here, no doubt, is 'good taste'; but in a dictionary of this scope and ambition the omission seems dumb and irresponsible."

Anyone care to spend $3.95 to see if the Times actually printed that "most widely-used word" in the original piece? Actually, don't. I'd rather hold onto the fantasy. Instead, read Sheidlower's article for some great info on the correct usage of terms like prong and irrumo, and then buy the updated edition of The F-Word. I haven't picked up the new one yet, but the original is one of the best books on language I've ever read (and, yes, I have read more than one).

(Disclaimer: Unlike this blog's originator/namesake, I've never actually met or corresponded with Jesse Sheidlower. I just appreciate a man dedicated enough to his job that he will track down the full usage history of phrases like "hotter than a fresh-fucked fox in a forest fire" and "you look like a monkey trying to fuck a football.")

1:36 PM :: Comments (8)

"I am tired of feeling like I'm doing this alone. All through the eight years of Bush, you Google `Bush' and `nemesis' and I'm the first name up. And there aren't a whole lot of other names," --Michael Moore

Names that come up before Michael Moore in a Google search for Bush and nemesis:
Tom Burgis
Paul Craig Roberts
Hugo Chavez
al Qaida
Osama bin Laden
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Al Gore
Howard Dean
Russ Feingold
Iran
Democrats
John Kerry
Harry Reid
Merriam Webster's Dictionary
Paul Krugman
Arch-conservatives
John Paul Stevens

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FIRST PLACE
"So, it's okay to fuck your neighbor's husband?"--dwilk

SEOND PLACE
"Are you sure these are the Lord's commandments and not yours? Because, can't imagine "Wives, keepeth parted thy buttocks for thine husbands' Sabbath anal' sounds a lot more prince of Egypt than Yahweh."-- David

HONORABLE MENTIONS
"Hey Chisel-gripper, anything in their about tending to your wife's burning bush?"-- Rich Lather

"You rendered me flat and asymmetrical. Start again."--Deborah

"Christ, how long does it take to chisel 'al in la'?!"--Tim H

Continue reading "Anti-Caption Contest #213" »

4:07 AM :: Comments (80)

One of the main reasons this blog has been on hiatus is that I have this new job that's been demanding a lot of attention. I won't be going into too much (or indeed any) detail about what it's like or what I do there, but I'll try to post some of the segments that I contributed to. I'm not taking credit for these, mind you. It's a very collaborative process and at every step, someone smarter, funnier, and better-paid than me is doing the real heavy lifting. That said, you can still make out my smudgy fingerprints here and there.

Here's the past month's collection.

8:39 PM :: Comments (2)

Say, where is everybody?

10:04 AM :: Comments (13)

So, this should be working again. Let's see... Hmm.

5:13 PM :: Comments (7)