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Best Of Puzzled Over

The Zen Of SkyMall

Finding myself stuck in a non-JetBlue plane for a quick up-and-down flight, I attacked my gratis copy of SkyMall and discovered a wonderful world full of fact, wit, and astonishment. I have collected every useful nugget of “factual” information used to sell products, and extend them to you as a sort of bizarro-Coupland reading exercise. Alternately, you can just imagine them on fortune cookies. Enjoy.
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Debated Puzzled Over

Journalistic Integrity

Let me see if I’ve got this “how to be a journalist” thing straight.

You go to a message board and post something laughably stupid, like “is Obama too skinny to be president?

> Does anyone out there think Barack Obama is too thin to be president? Anyone having a hard time relating to him and his “no excess body fat”? Please let me know. Thanks!

You get a brilliantly articulate response from “onlinebeerbellygirl”, who has never posted anywhere else on those forums and seemingly just registered that day:

> Yes I think He is to skinny to be President.Hillary has a potbelly and chuckybutt I’d of Voted for Her.I won’t vote for any beanpole guy.

You think, “JACKPOT!”:

> Love your response and your username (onlinebeerbellygirl). Would you mind shooting me an email so I can ask you a few more quesitons? My email is amy.chozick@gmail.com. Thanks so much!

Then you cite this as “research” or a “source” in your shitty article in the Wall Street Journal on the same topic:

> But in a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama’s skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.
> …
>”I won’t vote for any beanpole guy,” another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

And that’s journalism, right?

Mighty tip of the hat to Sadly, No! for digging this one out.

Categories
Puzzled Over

Super Smash Brothers Brawl Friends Code

How I wish that Nintendo had a unified code system across all their games.

Regardless: My Smash friends code is **5026-4084-2418**.

Please leave me a comment or shoot me an email with yours if you’re adding me.

Standing Friends Code Post caveats apply: if I have no idea who you are and/or can’t identify you, I’m unlikely to add you; this post is primarily for friends of people I know.