Thursday, January 29, 2004
 
Smacking Down Professionals, Too

After turning the glare of my trivial knowledge onto Harvey of Bad Money and Blackfive of Blackfive for their old movie misquotes, I turn my attention to a professional: Russell Scott Smith of the New York Post. Although I thought I scored a direct hit, I must admit that Scott Smith Russell, or Smith Russell Scott, or whatever concatenation of first names represents the name on his or her Social Security card, only mischaracterizes a movie trivium when writing about the current "buy an imaginary girlfriend on eBay" shtick. The article says:
    She had been watching the 1987 movie "Can't Buy Me Love," starring Patrick Dempsey as a dorky high schooler who pays a cheerleader $1,000 a month to date him.
The deal's not for $1000 a month, which indicates more than a month's worth of salary. Instead, Ronald pays $1000 to purchase a new outfit to replace the one that the soc girl has ruined, and only after intense negotiation beside the steps to the school do they agree to limit their faux dating to a single month. So the $1000 is a one-time fee, much what losers find on eBay.

So the pros only misrepresent the facts, instead of just getting their throwaway lines wrong. I'm not sure I am encouraged.

 
To say Noggle, one first must be able to say the "Nah."