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Opening Arguments

M

For the past two days, I've been harangued by phone and e-mail and in person over a letter to the editor we published Monday. It spoke against the recent City Council proposal to ban K2:

I've smoked the synthetic marijuana numerous times, and I have never been compelled to hurt anyone or break any laws. This can be an alternative to alcohol, which is 100 times more damaging to individuals and the Fort Wayne community than anything else. I would like to know how many homicides in Fort Wayne were directly connected to people drinking too much, like the two brothers who were drinking and the one stabbed the other one for leaving his door open.

And it was signed "Mary Jane." Don't you know, chortled the critics, that "Mary Jane" is common slang for marijuana and that someone arguing in favor of synthetic marijuana might use such a nickname instead of a real name? Har-har-har, you've been had, you big dummy.

Well, let's see. Yes, it's remotely possible that somebody like me, who came of age in the hippie era, might be vaguely aware of various slang terms for marijuana and might therefore have checked and doublechecked the name "Mary Jane," to the point where the person who answered the phone "Jane residence" got fairly annoyed. I might even have gone so far as to look up "Mary Jane" in the phone book and note that the number listed was the same one on the letter.

You big dummies.

(I'm still trying to verify the letter from Donny Ditchweed. Keep you posted.)

Comments

littlejohn
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 2:43pm

Obviously, I never though you were fooled by the obvious pseudonym.
Had I been in your shoes, I wouldn't have printed a letter under a pseudonym without a note to the effect of "Letter writer's name changed."
In fact, I wouldn't have run the letter without the real name. As you know, I have friends at the JG. They got the same letter and simply tossed it.
I've worked for a lot of papers, and every one of them would have tossed it. Let the writer use his own name, or shut up.
(Yes, I realize I'm using a screen name, but that's for my wife's protection, not mine. You surely know who I am.)

Leo Morris
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 3:16pm

But you did miss my point, or else I didn't explain it very well. "Mary Jane" may seem like an obvious pseudonym, but it is also the real name of a real person in Fort Wayne who wrote a real letter that I printed. So the JG "tossed" a valid letter.

littlejohn
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 5:29pm

Then you have my apologies, sir. Judging from what you wrote, I inferred you were being sarcastic.
Can you explain why this is the first time I have ever seen a letter in your paper listing the name, but not the home town, of the writer? Even my letters are followed by "Fort Wayne."
You must admit this looks extremely suspicious.
I'm not unsympathetic. I'm aware you're working with a skeleton staff and these things happen.
I've never heard of anyone with the last name "Jane." One can lie to the telephone company, you know.

tim zank
Wed, 07/28/2010 - 7:27pm

4 seconds, the Ultimate White Pages...last name "Jane" in Ft Wayne Indiana..

pops up 12 of them...

http://www.yb.com/results.php?ReportType=34&refer=2528&qc=fort+wayne&qi=0&qk=10&qn=Jane&qs=IN

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