On 4/24/05, Timwi <timwi(a)gmx.net> wrote: I'm trying to decide whether you're being ironic, or you don't get irony. I guess it could just be that you think the piece misses its target - which I presume is the concept of Peer Review, coupled with the idea of "preparing" children for adult life by submitting to the kind of process they will find there. As far as I know, The Onion's readers are not primarily in the "5th-grade" age range, so it is presumably meant to be read with a certain degree of perspective, so I don't think it's "condoning" anything. And just in case: you do realise it's fiction, don't you. ;) -- Rowan Collins BSc [IMSoP]

On Sun, 24 Apr 2005, Timwi wrote: Why not, these headlines are all over CNN, you know: "New Tech-Support Caste Arises In India" "Pope Admits: "God Ain't Said Shit To Me"" :-)) Alfio

Chad Perrin wrote: 'Course, it's not the first time it's been mistaken for the real thing - there was the famous Harry Potter flap... http://www.snopes.com/humor/iftrue/potter.htm --sannse

Chad Perrin wrote: OK, thanks for clearing that up. I guess I quite embarrassed myself here. Will I ever be able to post here again without being ridiculed for not knowing about The World-Famous Onion?

On 4/24/05, Timwi <timwi(a)gmx.net> wrote: Well, had the seed of doubt, or even a questing mind's wish to know "who the bleep are these people?", led you to click the logo to bring you to the front page, you would have found that this week's "Top Story" is "Pope Emerges From Chrysalis A Beautiful Butterfly". Tell me that you believe *that* story is real, and I really will be worried. :D Well, that wasn't really what I was trying to say - I was responding to a claim that they were "condoning bullying", not one that they were being "anti-5th-grade". The equivalent would therefore be something more like "The Onion's readers aren't primarily non-Jewish caucasians" - those being the people that it would matter if the Onion *condoned* anti-semitism. It's a very crude equivalence, but the point is that if the piece *were* aimed at 5th-graders, there would be a worry that, not seeing the irony, they would take it as support for such behaviour. I'm not convinced they would, but I don't think they'd be reading it anyway. Meanwhile, I would tend to say it was at worst non-comittal on the issue of bullying - if taken literally, it fails to criticise the comments, but doesn't give them credence beyond reporting them. If taken as a satire on genuine Peer Review processes, the comments can be taken as stinging parodies, and implicitly a thorough rebuke of the all-too-easy habit of mixing personal attacks up with genuine criticisms. It's always an interesting question with irony and satire - how far *can* you push the boundaries of criticism without becoming hypocritical - hence the scandal surrounding the UK television series "Brass Eye" (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye) Just thought I'd drop that one in... :) -- Rowan Collins BSc [IMSoP]