Sunday, March 7, 2010

Mary Schmich stiffed again?

I hope I'm wrong about this, but I think "All Things Considered" just reported on Mary Schmich's famous 1997 column, popularly known as "Wear Sunscreen," without mentioning her name or authorship. Audio isn't up yet, but here's the intro on the NPR website:

In the late 1990s, a manifesto falsely attributed to Kurt Vonnegut made the rounds of e-mail boxes. It came to be known as "Wear Sunscreen" — and even spawned a hit music video from movie director Baz Luhrmann. A similar, but more vicious, manifesto is now going viral. It was penned by firebrand NYU professor Scott Galloway to a student who arrived to his class an hour late. We give this latest diatribe the Luhrmann-like musical treatment.
The original Chicago Tribune column is here. Like I say, I hope I misheard; what kind of reporter would mention the misattribution and not the true source? (I know, I know, all kinds of reporters would. But it's not OK.)

Update, 7:30 p.m.: It's even stranger than I thought; the report mentions that the original "essay" came from the Chicago Tribune, but it does indeed leave out the author's name (while mentioning Vonnegut and Luhrman!). Bizarre.

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