Month: July 2004

Yes, it’s an easy target. And yes, we’ve already harped on for some time about how the New York Post is very, very error-prone. But today’s Post has three egregious errors, and we thought it pertinent to point them out, in fulfillment of our duties here at low culture as Honorary Ombudsmen of the Paper of Disrepute.
1. From STERN’S LADY IN LAD MAG: “Almost as good is a celebration of the enduring comedy “Nerds,” which this year turns 20.” Let’s see: either they’re reporting on an obscure, under-appreciated documentary depiction of the creation of the Willy Wonka-themed candy of that name, or they left off a key “Revenge of the” preceding modifer. But, hey, everyone loves a good shorthand now and then, right?
2. While not an error, per se, the paper’s HARVEY SET TO BOLT MIRAMAX on Page Six seems a bit, erm, unlikely. “Under the plan being considered, Weinstein would leave to start his own movie company and Miramax would distribute his films, sources say. Harvey’s brother and Miramax co-founder Bob Weinstein is expected to stay at the company, where he runs Dimension Films, a Miramax division that focuses on medium-budget action and horror films.” Fans of studio politics everywhere understand that while Harvey’s a boor, Bob is merely churlish, and boors hardly ever stand down for churls.
3. Oh, and there’s also some big hullabaloo about some error they may have made regarding the cover story above…Something about a cabinet pick, or an election or something? DEVELOPING…

While fans of lawsuits and/or insipidly lowest-common-denominator clothing chains may best know about West Virginia from its run-in with Abercrombie & Fitch last year over the company’s sale of T-shirts with the mocking phrase, “It’s All Relative in West Virginia,” it may be time to update your repertoire of insults for the 35th state in the union.
Mull over this disturbing factoid from the Associated Press, which comes via President Bush’s visit to the southern state on the fourth of July this past weekend.

Making a pitch for votes in a state where 200,000 veterans comprise 15 percent of the population, Bush praised veterans for “setting a good example for those who have followed … in Afghanistan and Iraq,” said Bush. Thirty-six percent of all male West Virginians fought in World War II, 16 percent in Korea and 20 percent in Vietnam.

Now, that last line seems ridiculously erroneous, and most probably involves some sort of grammatical error in relation to the first sentence of the paragraph sampled above. Because, otherwise, that means roughly 70 percent of West Virginian men are approaching retirement age.
And if that is in fact true, be on the lookout for next week’s hard-hitting TimeOut New York cover story, “WV to NY: Young and single West Virginians hit big on the New York bar scene!”