Hmm, quite a week for cosmic loserdom, isn't it? So, being even lazier than usual, the essence of this SNLC is the mostly self-explanatory poll here, although the two specifically named people might require a bit of explanation. It is also kind of interesting that several of the 'candidates' have a common thread, namely books, after a fashion. More below the flip:
Regarding Juror B37 in the George Zimmermann case, she did reveal a bit of nuance in the jury's deliberations, on Anderson Cooper's show, as quoted in Greg Allen's feature on Morning Edition:
"When they went into the jury room, B37 said, in the first vote, she was one of three people who thought Zimmerman was not guilty. Two wanted manslaughter, and one second-degree murder."
Too bad the 3 jurors who voted for either manslaughter or second-degree murder didn't "stand their ground", isn't it? Furthermore, Juror B37 casually revealed her degree of loserness by
a telling word choice
"COOPER: So you don't believe race played a role in this case?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I don't think it did. I think if there was another person - Spanish, white, Asian - if they came in the same situation where Trayvon was, I think George would have reacted in the exact same way."
Um,
George? Talk about revealing your bias there, Juror B37. Even more appalling was this bit:
"......just two days after the verdict, it was announced that juror B37 had signed a book deal."
Fortunately, in a relatively happy case of
vox populi, vox Dei, subsequently:
"News of the book deal and the interview sparked an immediate backlash. On social media, some said they didn't want to see the juror profit from what they label injustice. Hours after the interview, the book deal was canceled."
But speaking of books, that gets to the inclusion of Chris Gossage and Judith Callegari here, and to why 3CM would include them. This has to do with the recent British crime novel
The Cuckoo's Calling, written by 'Robert Galbraith'. The explanation is c/o James Meikle
here in
The Guardian, where the guilty culprit works at the law firm Russells Solicitors:
"We, Russells Solicitors, apologise unreservedly for the disclosure caused by one of our partners, Chris Gossage, in revealing to his wife's best friend, Judith Callegari, during a private conversation that the true identity of Robert Galbraith was in fact JK Rowling."
Of course, given the cult of celebrity these days, no surprise what happened to sales of the book:
"The revelations have boosted sales however. Rowling's publishers have reprinted 140,000 copies to meet demand. It had shifted just 1,500 copies before her identity was uncovered."
Celebrity also ties in to the fracas over the
Rolling Stone cover that features Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt quoted
here from Dan Kennedy, a journalism instructor at Northeastern University in Boston:
"......the furore may have been driven by a lack of understanding of the kind of journalism Rolling Stone does.
'I assume that the editors at Rolling Stone knew that the cover would be controversial, but this may be spinning out of control in ways they did not anticipate."
No kidding. Kennedy continues:
"One possible explanation for that is that a lot of people really don't understand Rolling Stone. They think it features nothing on the cover but entertainers and celebrities, and in fact Rolling Stone often features serious news on the cover."
Of course, you can flip the question and ask: what would our side say if
Rolling Stone featured George Zimmermann on their cover? I don't doubt that a
Rolling Stone article would probably lay into Zimmermann and the whole "stand your ground" vigilante mess, but the point is that a cover image hits faster on a visceral level compared to an article that one has to take time to read. (One other snarky take on the
Rolling Stone cover brouhaha is from Marina Hyde at
The Guardian here, where to paraphrase the header, given a choice between putting a vicious, cold-blooded terrorist vs. a narcissitic pop star on the cover of
Rolling Stone, well then.....)
And self doesn't even have time to babble on about Detroit or Chicago (typical loser, that 3CM), which require separate diaries on their own. With that, time for the usual SNLC protocol, namely your loser stories of the week, once you've voted in the poll (you are going to vote in the poll, aren't you?).....