Banned in Boston, online edition.
On April 23, MIT sophomore David Sheets cataloged Web sites that can’t be reached on Boston’s free wireless network due to a screwy filtering program. Not accessible: the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Wikipedia’s entry on cocaine, and Match.com. Fair game: eHarmony, cock rings.
Yes, it’s the Herald, but still.
Herald cops reporter Michele McPhee wrote an ostensibly tough April 24 column about Celtics point guard Sebastian Telfair’s latest brush with the law. Upon closer inspection, however, it was more of a service piece for Telfair and his “celebrity attorney,” Ed Hayes, who also happens to represent McPhee — an affiliation divulged following Hayes’s sixth quote. (Also after quote five, we learned that Hayes “was the muse for Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities.) By that time, Hayes had assured readers that Telfair “is not a bad kid at all,” was “100 percent cooperative” in another investigation, is “upset” about the reaction of some fans, “loves the Celtics,” and “loves Boston.” Allow us to propose the Michele Rule, which stipulates that reporters can’t quote their own lawyers. Even at the Herald.
Isn’t “stalkee” in the style book?
In a front-page April 22 story titled “To End a Romance, Just Press ‘Send,’ ” Globe reporter Don Aucoin leads with the tale of “Larry,” whose “girlfriend” recently ended their relationship via e-mail . . . for the sixth time in eight months. Um . . . maybe another headline?
No, just walking by your side.
On Saturday, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) gave über-celebrity Jennifer Aniston its Vanguard Award for “her work reflecting alternative families/lifestyles.” And you thought those on-screen smooches with Winona Rider and Courtney Cox were just cheap PR stunts!
At least they passed on “Ma’s-ectomy.”
Just in time for Mother’s Day, the New Yorker uses the phrase “Mom-o-Gram” to market its new Book of Moms. Because really, who doesn’t like puns based on unpleasant medical procedures?
We suggest “she-wolf.”
Slate catalogs the various terms news outlets have used to describe ex–World Bank officer Shaha Ali Riza, whose long-standing relationship with Iraq War architect and current World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz — along with the transfer and raise she received upon Wolfowitz’s arrival at the Bank — has been the source of much controversy. The list includes “girlfriend,” “companion,” “friend,” “romantic partner,” “close female friend,” “gal,” “partner,” and “lover.” Wonkette.com helpfully adds “The Wolfucker.”
Shame of the liberals.
At the April 22 White House Correspondents Dinner, Sheryl Crow and Laurie David — wife of Larry and producer of An Inconvenient Truth — confronted Karl Rove about global warming. When Crow reached for Rove’s shoulder, according to an entry the two wrote for the Huffington Post, Rove “swung around and spat, ‘Don’t touch me.’ ” Which raises the question: what the fuck was Sheryl Crow doing at the White House Correspondents Dinner?
On the Web
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