aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Unseamly (sic) lawsuit and smooch

My NY host - one of my most dedicated readers - is disappointed in my blogging prowess. He notes that I missed two prime blogger opportunities. There’s the one about the $54 million missing-pants-at-the-Chinese-laundry lawsuit:

WSJ Law Blog has the (long) opinion and (short) judgment in the case. Professor Bainbridge notes the pertinence of the legal principle of “puffery”, under which Pearson was no more justified in demanding the literal enforcement of the Chungs’ “Satisfaction Guaranteed” sign than would other customers be justified in suing United Air Lines after a grumpy flight for not providing “friendly skies”, Exxon for not putting a genuine “tiger in your tank”, Fox News for being less than “fair and balanced”, and so forth.

(See also Joe Gandelman’s fun slacker puns.)

And then there’s the censored gay smooch in the Newark high school yearbook, since reinstated:

The Newark city school district that ordered staffers to use markers to black out a picture of a male student kissing his boyfriend from all copies of a school yearbook now says it regrets the decision.

Superintendent Marion A. Bolden issued an apology to the student, Andre Jackson, according to a statement released by the district on Monday.

“The decision was based, in part, on misinformation that Mr. Jackson was not one of our students and our review simply focused on the suggestive nature of the photograph,” the district said.

“Superintendent Marion A. Bolden personally apologizes to Mr. Jackson and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him,” according to the statement.

He only learned of the apology through the media, it was not face-to-face, so the student has not accepted. Superintendent and student are slated to meet today so the story still has legs.

It happens that the student on the receiving end the offending kiss is from my extended family home, Allentown, PA. My host here tells me that those who request a yearbook without the markings can get one. Here’s the earlier story, complete with photo.