Stephen Bain wrote:
On 7/15/06, Bryan Derksen bryan.derksen@shaw.ca wrote:
I don't even see what's so undignified about this particular incident that anyone would argue it on that basis in the first place. Everyone does boneheaded things from time to time.
This particular incident may only be embarrassing; what is undignified is AP's reportage using a full name. What would likewise be undignified would be the immortalisation of this in a biography, forever linking this person's name with this event and this event alone (there is no other biographical information available), as if that was the sum total of their life.
Exactly. Perhaps I am surprisingly old-fashioned, but it seems to me that the news reporting in this case would have been _better_ had they simply used initials or some other literary device.
For me, the amusement at the cute story (woman calls 911 to ask for a date) was seriously impaired by my distaste for the fact that this poor woman's name was being brought into the matter globally and on the Internet and against her will, in a way that makes it somewhat likely that future googling on her name for the next 30 years will bring this incident, and only this incident, to the forefront.
--Jimbo