Four Score And Seven Years Ago....

I didn't come up with that headline. I cribbed it from a speech by one of our former Presidents. If I was researching this blog entry and wrote down that phrase cause it was catchy and even if I failed to note "A. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address") on it, when it came time to writing this item, I would see that phrase and just KNOW I didn't write it. It's distinctive, it's clear and it wasn't written by me. The latest case of plagiarism involved an editorial in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that cribbed from the New Yorker. Their ombusdman says no one will discuss the editorial, who wrote it, whether they were insisted but editors say it was "unintentional." The ombusdman says that's pretty hard to swallow. I agree, which is why the free pass for Doris Kearns Goodwin, Stephen Ambrose and so many others sticks in my craw.