Game, Set, Match
Briton Robert Dee, feeling humiliated at beingcalled the "world's worst tennis pro" by London's DailyTelegraph (and other news organizations), sued the newspaper for libel lastyear. After taking testimony in February 2010, the judge tossed out the lawsuitin April, persuaded by Dee's having lost 54consecutive international tour matches (all in straight sets). Fearful of anopposite result, 30 other news organizations had already apologized to Dee fordisparaging him, and some even paid him money in repentance, but the Telegraph had stood its ground (and was,of course, humble in victory, titling its story on the outcome, “‘World'sWorst' Tennis Player Loses Again”).
The Continuing Crisis
- An April ABC News TV report featured a Westford, Mass., couple as the face of the"radical unschooling" philosophy, which challenges both the formalclassroom system and home schooling. Typically, home-schooling parents believethey can organize their kids' educations better than schools can, but"unschoolers" simply put kids on their own, free to decide bythemselves what, or whether, to learn any of the traditional school subjects.There is no punishment, no judgment, no discipline. The key, said parentChristine Yablonski, "is that you've got to trust your kids." Forexample, "If they (decide that they) need formal algebra understanding ...they'll find that information."
- Bolinas, Calif., north of San Francisco, is famously reclusive, even tothe point of residents' removing state highway signs pointing to the town,hoping that outsiders will get lost enroute and give up the quest. It limitsits population to about 1,500 by officially fixing the number of municipalwater hookups at 580, but in April, one of the meters became available when thecity purchased a residential lot to convert to a park. The meter was to be soldat a May auction, with a minimum bid of $300,000.
Uh-Oh!
A recent French documentary in the form of aTV show called "Game of Death" mimics the notorious 1950shuman-torture experiments of Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram, who would coaxtest subjects to administer increasingly painful jolts of electricity tostrangers to assess their obedience to an "authority figure," even ifcontrary to their own moral codes. As in Milgram's experiments, the Game ofDeath "victims" were actors, unharmed but paid to scream louder witheach successive "shock." According to a BBC News report, 81% of thegame's players were willing torturers, a higher percentage than Milgram found,but the TV show's subjects had greater encouragement, cheered on by a raucousstudio audience and a glamorous hostess.
Oops!
Spectacular Errors: (1) MiltonHigh School beat Westlake,56-46, for the Georgia5A boys' basketball championship in March. Westlake's chances evaporated during thepre-game warm-ups, when their Georgia-player-of-the-year candidate MarcusThornton was forced to sit out after twisting his ankle leaping to ceremoniallyhip-bump a teammate. (2) Two North Carolina surgeons were issued official "lettersof concern" in January for a 2008 incident in which they performed aC-section on a woman who was not pregnant. (They relied on a resident'sincorrect diagnosis and followed an ultrasound with no heartbeat and severalobviously failed attempts to induce labor.)
Bright Ideas
Frustrated customers frequently challengebills, and occasionally, "rescission" of the original deal is asuitable remedy. However, it's not suitable for some services. Deborah Dillowwas late with the $150 she allegedly owed to The Bomb Squad dog waste pick-upservice in Bend, Ore., in April, and appeared to be avoidingcalls at her home. The Bomb Squad owner, frustrated by the delays, simplyreturned all the work done to that point on Dillow's property in one big pile,in her front yard.
Least Competent Criminals
Overconfident "Artists": (1) ClairArthur Smith, 42, of Cape Coral, Fla., was charged with forgery inMay after he allegedly tried to doctor the amount of a check he had receivedfrom Florida Gulf Bank. Converting the "$10.00" check to $100, oreven $100,000, would seem plausible, but Smith tried to deposit the check intohis account after he had marked it up to "$269,951.00." (2) A17-year-old was arrested in College Station, Texas, inJanuary for allegedly trying to pass a homemade $5 bill at a restaurant. Policesaid the bill's front and back had been computer-scanned and then pastedtogether but that the front of the bill was longer than the back.
© 2010 Chuck Shepherd
