August 15
...serving up your daily dish.
Bloomfield High School yearbook graduation letter, take two. This one, delivered by mail, actually came with a peel and stick adhesive, in order to replace the disastrous original, as seen here. The writing still doesn't meet the Barista's exacting standards, but at least they got it out by the IRS 2004 tax extension deadline.
It has been so long on the "Orsini watch" that I forget when I instituted it. But I still like the CYA savvy he indicates with "Evidently it was retyped, and poorly." Evidently, teach.
And peel-and-stick? I didn't realize that the BHS yearbook was a joint venture with Colorforms. If it's not too culturally insensitive, I'll give the good Principal a generous C+ here, but I'll also bring it down to a sulky C for lateness. Not one of the great moments in educational prose, in other words.
Posted by: cathar | Aug 15, 2005 7:09:02 PM
Any principal who needs to deliver a "peel and stick" addendum to the yearbook should be fired. What happened to "The Buck Stops Here?" This is a huge disappointment.
Posted by: Ted | Aug 15, 2005 9:42:45 PM
And it makes you wonder what, if any, consequence the individual who "re-typed it and poorly" may have suffered? My little birdies tell me it was an English teacher, not student volunteers.
Posted by: Oye | Aug 16, 2005 7:37:36 AM
Having been a grammarian for quite some time, I have seen a few typographical errors that were introduced when an otherwise okay piece was re-typed, drafted up, or entered into a word processing program. But I have never -- ever -- seen as many typographical or grammatical errors as were evident in Principal Orsini's original letter introduced during any drafting-up process. The Infinite Number of Monkeys Transcription Service, Inc. would have done a better job.
And now Principal Orsini is trying to con us into believing that someone else was responsible for the problem. Perhaps he thinks his "Oops, sorry, not my fault" message will sell. Wrong. High school kids have some of the best built-in bullshit detectors in the universe, and this peel-and-stick replacement reeks of the barnyard. Be a mensch, Principal Orsini - just say that the piece should have been edited, and that it was your fault that it wasn't. Kids (and most adults) will forgive mistakes, but don't try to tell us the dog mis-typed your homework.
Posted by: conan the grammarian | Aug 16, 2005 8:06:06 AM
What I want to know is, which letter did Mr. Orsini writ--this one, or the previous one? Because they both can't have the same author.
Posted by: walleroo | Aug 16, 2005 10:20:19 AM
And now Principal Orsini is trying to con us into believing that someone else was responsible for the problem. Perhaps he thinks his "Oops, sorry, not my fault" message will sell.
yeah. this excuse doesn't really alleviate the embarrassment of a peel-and-stick redo.
like lipstick on a pig...
Posted by: efs | Aug 16, 2005 12:10:42 PM