Friday, February 29, 2008

Let's hear it for our shadowy overlords... The ones who run The Onion, that is... Earlier this week, I went to http://theonion.com to make my news writing students laugh with some of the site's excellent parodies of traditional news writing. I hadn't been there in a while, and for some reason I had never clicked on one of the site's video news parodies. This time I did, and on came news of the shadowy overloards... in a story headlined "Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results of 2008 Election Early." I recommend it highly. One student, whom I hope wasn't paying very close attention, said "Is this supposed to be on the level?" I'd also recommend the entire class watch this Onion clip before our next geography quiz: "Nation Of Andorra Not In Africa, Shocked U.S. State Dept. Reports." (Just in case there are any questions, here's the real CIA backgrounder on the country.) I'd watch more Onion videos, but I'm past my tolerance for Old Spice Hair and Body Wash ads. I'd rather watch "Head On" commercials than hear the redundant phrase "for hair and/or body... or both" again. I hope The Onion finds another sponsor. For now, I'm going back to the text-only stories, like these: E-Mail From Aunt Accidentally Opened CHICAGO[~]An otherwise routine e-mail-checking session went wrong when college student Gwen Petersen, 20, accidentally opened a message sent by her Aunt Sophie in Michigan, sources reported Monday.... Nation's Snowmen March Against Global Warming WASHINGTON, DC[~]Braving balmy temperatures and sunny skies, millions of scarfless snowmen and snowwomen gathered in cities across the world Tuesday to raise public awareness about the heavy toll global warming is taking on their health and well-being.... I'd put something clever here at the end, but I just can't come up with the right phrase. Oh, I forgot.... one more story: Fur Flies at Beauty Contest (But It's Not What You Think) GOLDEN HILL, Md. -- Contestant No. 1 sashayed down the catwalk, her hair bouncing in blonde curls, and smiled a radiant beauty-queen smile. She picked up a furry dead rodent about the size of a football. Then she took out a very sharp four-inch blade and stuck the point in just above the animal's tail.... Oops. That's not The Onion. It's The Washington Post. Both the video and text versions of the story will give us something to talk about in class before a spring break hunt for unusual stories. 10:52:43 PM    comment []

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