Plagiarism in the (Frum) Press

UPDATED:

Please see updates at the bottom.

**the following post was not written by Stam. It was written by a blogger who wishes to remain anonymous and who does not have posting privileges on SerandEz :)**

My first taste of Internet plagiarism came in a bittersweet form.

It started out in my email inbox, with the subject line "FWD: fwd: fwd: FWD: fwd: very funny!! MUST READ!!!!!" Needless to say, I was hardly intrigued. I started to read, and the words looked very familiar.

As you may have guessed, I'd written the email. Not as an email, but as a post on my blog. My first thought was "cool, people like my blog posts enough to send them around as email forwards." But as my eyes scanned the email for the credit for this "must read, very funny" email, I was exceedingly disappointed. No name, no link, nothing.

You know those famous emails that are credit "author unknown?" Well now I know how they start.

My second taste also came in the form of an email, but this one was a link to a "frum" forum, where some poster was reaping compliments off of a post...copied directly from my blog. This time it hurt a little more than it felt nice. Someone was gaining off of my writing (even something as minor as a compliment), and it wasn't me. How is that fair?

When asked by my friend if I was going to complain, my response was simple. "It doesn't pay. It's not as if they are making money off of me or my writing."

But what if they were? What if a magazine published my writing, but sent a check to somebody else?

Sounds crazy? I thought so too.

Then I opened up the Ami Magazine. I love to cook and bake, so naturally, I turned straight to the recipes section. One of the recipes really popped out, and not because of it's mouthwatering picture, or the delicious sounding idea. No, this one stuck out because it made me feel a strong sense of deja vu.

"I've seen this before," I thought to myself, quickly opening my favorite baking blog. And I wasn't wrong. I had seen it before, almost word for word the same. The name was almost the same, as was the picture. I looked at the page of the magazine, then again. No credit, no "reprinted with permission." Just the misleading impression that the columnist had come up with this recipe on her own.

Doesn't this seem wrong? How can a Frum magazine lift a recipe directly off a website and expect no repercussions? "Be dan lekaf zechus," my friends warned. So I was. I assumed that Ami wasn't aware that they had printed a stolen recipe. So I sought out the editor on twitter, and received the following (mocking) responses:

"There's nothing new under the sun." And "don't go nuts."

If I were an honest magazine editor who had just discovered I published a stolen recipe, I would be the one going nuts.


Here's the link to the original recipe and the page in Ami:



If you think this is wrong, please let the Ami know.
Call them at 718.534.8800
Email info@amimagazine.org or the editor-in-chief directly: rechy@amimagazine.org
Or tweet the editor @victoriadwek.
Or let them know how you feel on Facebook.
If you're a blogger, please spread the word.
Together, we can teach the Frum publishing world that plagiarism isn't going to be tolerated.

**this post was not written by Stam. It was written by a blogger who wishes to remain anonymous and who does not have posting privileges on SerandEz :)**

UPDATE 1 (by Ezzie):


The chief editor of Ami responded immediately to an e-mail asking about the incident:

I will check this out [...] and get back to you. One thing I can tell you now. Ami magazine does not want to plagiarize. And if that happened we will make amends

They told another e-mailer (via the comments section here) as well:

This was brought to my attention yesterday.
As I told the writer of that e-mail, Ami certainly does not want to plagiarize.

I will get back to you as soon as I get in touch with the person who wrote the recipe for us and understand what is going on here.
Thanks

So far, the response has been quick and appropriate; we'll see what reply is given later.


UPDATE 2 (by Ezzie):


After no further response, I e-mailed the chief editor again. I have yet to receive a reply (it has been a number of hours).


On Friday I was told that the writer was upset and felt she was misunderstood and wanted me to e-mail her. I noted that she could e-mail me herself directly if she wished, but have yet to receive an e-mail from her.

**this post was not written by Stam. It was written by a blogger who wishes to remain anonymous and who does not have posting privileges on SerandEz :)**

I'm Crazy, But Only For A Day

Guest post by YH

When I got back into shidduchim last year, there was one rule first and foremost in my mind: I’m looking to get married not to play games. One of my goals in marriage is to find the happiness that comes from stability, and it’s hard to be happy when you have this huge gaping hole in your life. It’s hard to look at the positives when you see such a big negative. It’s hard to enjoy yourself when all you want to do is lie down and indulge in self-pity. We’ve all had something which makes us feel incredibly lousy. It’s the essence of the shidduch crisis. The crisis isn’t that there are thousands of unmarried men and women who desire strongly to have kids and raise a family. The crisis is you and me. It’s a personal crisis shared by thousands.

I know what it means to hold a baby in your arms, to teach a child to read, to show little ones right from wrong. Boruch Hashem, I’ve been blessed with several ridiculously cute nephews and nieces (kn’ayin harah) whom I treasure more than anything and who love me back unconditionally. Boruch Hashem I have a close relationship with my married siblings, and I have a glimpse on the world “inside”.

It’s the hardest thing for me in the world.

How can you maintain a balance, an equilibrium, when every day you’re constantly reminded that you’re still alone, that you’re still single - especially in our culture which is centered around family life? How can you maintain yourself with rejection after rejection; to see your optimism and self-confidence crumble into dust?

Take some time off. Indulge a little in your self-pity. Don’t feel guilty; just let it wash over yourself. Watch a movie, hang out with a friend. Do something that will let you just relax. Then think it through – remember what your life is about. The life I want has a wife and a family. Children of my own. But that’s not the life Hashem gave me, not yet, and I have no business wallowing when there is so much out there for me. Grab life by the horns. Kick yourself back into high-gear, make a goal for yourself, and then follow the steps necessary to accomplish it. Start exercising, drop a few pounds, ditch the raggedy sweater with the nacho stains and get a nice shirt or a new tie. Make yourself feel better about being you, and start being proactive. Everyone has a bad day once in a while. It’s ok to be crazy.

But only for a day.

Bas4: Team Shobbos

Well, it was a close call, but Bas Melech did get up before noon, and we hit the beach. It was warm, the water was blue, the sand was coarse, but not hopeless for the task of building a sandcastle. Build a sandcastle, you ask, but with what? Well, we had no buckets, but we had other things. Ma, if you’re reading this and thinking “Those towers are shaped remarkably like my pareve green plastic container,” it is totally coincidental. Trust me – don’t check the cabinets.

Behind Casa Lifeline you can see the start of a crenelated wall that wasn’t completed due to budgetary shortages. The flag is a Team Lifeline luggage tag. The engineering was done by Bad4, the architecture and design by Bas Melech. Overall, I think we did a fine job.

We tried to make a time-stop film of it being washed away by the sea, but Shobbos intruded and we had to run.
~ Bad4


Boy, have I got an idea for the next hit reality show/sitcom: Put an engineer and an artist together in a hotel room for a weekend. Seriously, I’ve been looking for the hidden cameras since I got here. Whose idea was this, anyway? (Oh, right. Mine.)

Unfortunately, I STILL haven’t found the hidden cameras so I don’t have a record of everything that happened. All I know is that Shabbos was AWESOME. Mainly because Bad4 gave me the perfect opportunity to return her jibes about sleepiness by skipping out before dessert… to sleep. :-D (Bad4’s note: to read, then sleep. :-P ) While I enjoyed my vacation with some rousing games, meeting new people, the Misanthropes Club convened upstairs. (Bad4’s note: I adore people… when I can hear what they’re saying. Usually. OK, sometimes.)

Other than that, our excitement consisted mostly of helpful hotel personnel turning on the lights we left off, turning off the lights we left on, and opening and closing our refrigerator.

Overall, it looks like this is going to be one of those happy-ending shows. At least, if Bad4 stops leaning on the back of my chair and making it swivel, there’s still a chance. But she’s reading this and looking for drama.
~ Bas~Melech

Some stats from the Motzai Shobbos Pasta Party:

• There are 230 runners.
• They range from 12-70. (There are two 12-year-olds. One is a Camp Simcha Special camper. The other is the tweenager I saw on Friday. Dunno ‘bout the 70-year-old.)
• One runner came all the way from Australia. (The runner sitting next to me came from Israel.)
• In total, we raised over $1,034,000.
• The top fundraiser raised $24,000. He’s a former camper.
• The total miles we will run tomorrow are equivalent to the distance between Miami and Anchorage.
• We drank about a zillion liters of water and ate a fagillion pounds of pasta.
• We are going to wake up before 4 am tomorrow in order to make it to the start line in time. I’m not sure how Sleeping Beauty is going to manage that…

Hacked Again

Wishing you a good shabbos!
-Princess D'Tiara and Barfla!

Guest Post: Bas~Melech, Undercover in Hollywood, FL

I warned her. I really did.

When I stumbled into Florida in the wee hours this morning, I was ready for bed. But no, Bad4 had to go swimming. At one in the morning. Fortunately, the locked pool gate deterred her. Adventure always gives me a second wind, so I was left hyperactively blogging in my semiconscious stupor as Bad4 drifted off to sleep on a bed of clouds. Then she turned over, discarded the clouds (8 of her 10 cushy pillows), and returned to dreamland like normal. As if.
Five minutes later, she divebombed onto my legs. Yes, the ones that were going to do a marathon in less than 48 hours. Now I know why they call her Bad4.

Allow me to explain something. There are two types of vacationers. Having a serious dearth of vacation in my life, I have never had much opportunity to fully become either of them. The first type crams their schedule with exciting activities to make up for the drudgery of their non-vacation life. The second type has an exciting enough life and uses the vacation to relax. I lean towards the second category – my mind entertains all of the exotic possibilities (option #1: Join Bad4 in Walmart) while every muscle in my body says “Gimme a break.” Thus, when Bad4 delivered her stirring sermon about how we were here to relax and enjoy ourselves, I showed her just how very relaxed I was while she was “enjoying” herself trying to change my spots.

That was just my explanation of her previous post. Stay tuned for what comes next as I shake off the covers and prepare to explore in proper daylight.

Guest post: Bas~Melech LIVE from Hollywood, FL

This post is by Bas~Melech. She's kind of tired and not particularly coherent, so keep that in mind. ~ Bad4

As Bad4 already revealed, she had plenty of time to trash our room before I arrived. My trip was not as eventful as hers; ever unathletic, I chose instead to gracefully pirouette through airport security. My excitement came later: As I sought company for my sojourn to the hotel, a dude approached. After ascertaining that we were both headed the same way, he asked why I was running, but before I could launch into my stirring motivation as explained here, he volunteered his own deepest interests. They number two: Running and math. I still held out hope of finding a young gentleman here. There was another dude with us, too; he offered to share his opera tracks with those of us looking to update our itunes before the race. Nice.

He redeemed himself, though, by helpfully offering to arrange a group ride for the Team Lifeline participants on board our flight. After strolling around Miami International ("Airport taxis always overcharge." Well, what other kind is there at the airport?!) he found us a very recent immigrant indeed who calmly assured us that he knew exactly where our hotel was. For some reason (maybe it was the 30-second pause before his response?) we felt neither assured nor calm about riding with the fellow, but he had already taken our bags hostage in his trunk.

Let's just say I got to the hotel... eventually. By that time, as you've already learned, Bad4 had ample opportunity to trash our beautiful room. She'd even had time to get in the first two marathon posts AND take a decent nap, rendering her annoyingly perky for one who has just been woken from a sound stupor by a traumatized and drained roommate falling in. Literally.

After admiring the toilet paper origami and water bottles and ascertaining that the refrigerator was not, in fact, monitoring our usage to bill us later, and that the internet would not, in fact, work from the comfort of our big, cushy beds, I was ready to explore (albeit quickly losing consciousness).

More to come, but first I need to get an edge on Bad4 with a few z's.

One Last Curtain Call

One Last Curtain Call
Aryeh Love

Likely before midnight tonight, the last single will be hit at Yankee Stadium. The last home run will sail over the wall. The last fly ball, the last ground ball, the last strikeout. Someone will hit the final foul ball into the upper deck, someone will be the last to cross home plate. And in about 4 hours, give or take, the final pitch will be thrown from the Yankee Stadium mound. When that last out is caught it will symbolize the end of an era. Not just for a franchise, not just for a city. It will be the end for a sport and for a country.

Critics have said that it is unfortunate that the 2008 Yankees won’t give the Stadium a proper October sendoff. I disagree. If the last game at the Stadium had been played in October, the game would be about the team. It would be about the Yankees’ quest for a 27^th championship and its success of failure. Instead, tonight’s game will be about the stadium. It will be about everyone who saw their first baseball game at the House that Ruth Built. It will be about the legends who roamed the field. It will be about the ghosts of the 26 championships already won. Tonight’s game will be about the past, not the present.

Critics have said that the current Yankee Stadium hasn’t been the same since the renovations in the mid-70’s. I disagree. Would anybody say the same about a Wrigley Field that now has lights installed for night games? What about a Fenway Park with seats above the Green Monster? Is the Stadium exactly the same as it was in 1923 when it opened? Of course not, but is anything that old the same? Besides, the pieces likely change from game to game and season to season. The home plate used tonight won’t be the same one Reggie stepped on 3 times in 1977. The pitching rubber used in Don Larsen’s prefect game is long gone. Derek Jeter will play between two bases that Phil Rizzutto never saw. The pieces may be different, but the whole remains the same.

Critics have said that it is ridiculous for the Yankees to close Yankee Stadium. “How can you shut down a place with that much history?” they have said. “The ghosts of Yankee Stadium won’t move across the street with the team” they have complained. “How can you close down an American icon?” Again, I disagree. The closing of Yankee Stadium will allow a new generation to make new history, to welcome new ghosts, and to create a new American icon. We won’t have Babe Ruth’s record setting home run numbers of the 20’s and 30’s. Instead we’ll witness the record setting numbers of Alex Rodriguez. We won’t get to see Lou Gehrig rapping base hits through the infield, but we’ll likely see Derek Jeter become the first Yankee to join the 3,000 hit club. (Dave Winfield, Wade Boggs, Paul Waner and Rickey Henderson all wore pinstripes, but none had 3,000 hits as a Yankee). We may even see Mike Mussina become the last 300 game winner in baseball history and Mariano Rivera become the all time career saves leader if they both last long enough in pinstripes to do so. While we’ll no longer have the field where so many people took in their first baseball game (myself included), we’ll have a new field to take our kids to their first baseball game.

While critics may voice opposition about the future plan, tonight’s game is not about the future. While tonight may be the night the Yankees are mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, tonight’s game is not about the present. Tonight’s game is about Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, a streak unlikely to ever be broken. It’s about Babe Ruth’s 60 home run season, an unheard of number in 1927. It’s about Reggie’s 3 home run game in the ’77 World Series. It’s about Lou Gehrig’s farewell speech. It’s about Aaron Boone’s shot in 2003. It’s about the countless historic baseball moments that took place at Yankee Stadium, not to mention the non-baseball moments the Stadium hosted.

One of the non-baseball related moments that people have written about is the night President George Bush threw out the first pitch of Game 3 in the 2001 World Series. It was our (America’s) way of telling our enemies that you may have destroyed our buildings, but you didn’t destroy our spirit, our will, or our way of life. The President could have thrown out the first pitch of Game 1 in Phoenix to open the 2001 World Series. Chase Field in Arizona would likely have been less of a target than Yankee Stadium would have been. But Bush knew that if he wanted the statement to have the right impact, it had to be in New York. It had to be in the same city that was attacked just a few weeks earlier. It had to be in the same city that saw its buildings fall, and, as Bush put it on this year’s 9/11, its Heroes rise. It had to be in the capital of American Baseball, in its Cathedral, in Yankee Stadium.

That ceremonial first pitch was a message to the world. While things may be different, things are still very much the same. Similarly, when the first pitch is thrown at the new Yankee Stadium it will be a be a message to the Yankee world as well as the entire baseball world that while the surroundings may be different, things will still be very much the same. The Yankees will begin a 9^th quest for their 27^th world championship, the same quest they have been on for the last 8 years. The pinstripes will be the same, the players will be the same (some of them at least), the short right field porch will be the same. But like I said, tonight isn’t about the future, nor is it about the team. It’s about the Stadium and about the past.

Maybe something extra special will happen tonight. Maybe Andy Pettite throws a perfect game, Alex Rodriguez hits 5 home runs, or Derek Jeter wins it in the bottom of the 9^th, keeping the Yankees mathematically alive and by some miracle they make the playoffs. But in all likelihood, tonight’s game will be like most of the other 6,500 plus games played there. When the last out of tonight’s game nestles into someone’s glove, the 55,000 plus fans will give the Stadium its’ first, and last, standing ovation. Likely to be standing for a lot of the game already, there will no full seats after that last catch as every person in the ballpark will rise and finally give the Stadium its due. They will cheer for the pitcher’s mound where Larsen threw the only perfect game in World Series history. They’ll cheer for the infield dirt where Gehrig played most of his 2,130 consecutive games. They’ll cheer the outfield grass where Mantle, DiMaggio and Ruth once roamed. They’ll cheer home plate, behind which Yogi Berra won 10 World Series rings. They’ll call out all the ghosts of Yankee Stadium for one last curtain call. And then they’ll ask for another. And another…… And another…

Amnesia

A friend wrote this a while back, thinking about their prior engagement and how the feelings that had been so built up had faded in a matter of months once the relationship was no longer. They showed it to me this morning, and I thought it was interesting, so the friend said I could post it.

Amnesia

It's amazing that you can invest so much into a relationship, and give it all up in a matter of weeks, or days.

I always learned that love does not exist until after marriage. I believed what I had been taught, convinced that anyone who spoke otherwise was wrong. When I met "The One" I was nervous that the three powerful words would be spoken before they were meant. Shortly after the proposal I found myself using the unforgivable phrase myself. There was just nothing else to explain our feelings for one another. It was love.

And so I believed in US. I invested everything I had.

How one could forget all the tangible feelings and emotions that took months or years to build up in a matter of a few weeks is beyond me. Does it make a person "cold"? Perhaps it is simply G-d helping them out, making the search for "The Right One" easier and less painful...

A Conservative Jew's Reaction

Ezzie: Shira Salamone of On The Fringe asked if I could post this guest post from the standpoint of someone who is a strong Conservative Jew, so here's her reaction to the previous post.

Pirkei Avot, chapter 2, paragraph 1: "Rabbi (Yehuda HaNasi) said . . . 'Be as scrupulous in performing a "minor" mitzvah as in a "major" mitzvah, for you do not know the reward given for the respective mitzvot.'"

Some segments of the Orthodox community seem to have the same attitude toward sin, not differentiating between minor infractions of halachah (Jewish religious law) and serious, even life-altering, violations thereof. ADDeRabbi has complained about this both in the past and more recently, and has strongly recommended that a "hierarchy of violations" be recognized, acknowledging the fact that some sins are, in fact, much worse than others.

Here's the heart of his post on the misbehavior in Monticello:

"I’m not sure if I should laugh or cry at the equation between immodest dress and drug use. I have been taught that in order to be a good Jew, one must first be a good human being. Being Jewish does not absolve one from being a mensch. All of the behaviors discussed are symptomatic of the ‘at-risk’ youth. And I ask: at risk of what? Becoming Modern Orthodox? Intermarrying? Dying of a drug overdose? Contracting STDs? I think that a hierarchy of ‘risks’ must be catalogued, and fast, lest mountains be turned into molehills and vice versa (like in the old ‘it leads to mixed dancing’ joke)."

As I commented there, "I have a serious problem with the automatic assumption, in some segments of the Orthodox community, that there's no such thing as innocent, wholesome activities that involve both males and females in the same place at the same time. Seriously, how intimate can one get with a bowling ball in hand or a mouth full of pizza?"

I read somewhere (given my lack of a decent Jewish education, it was probably on a blog) that the rabbis have said, "If you forbid that which is permitted, people will do that which is forbidden." See here for proof, should you happen to need any.

The Hillel (standing-on-one-foot) version: If you forbid everything, then people will do anything, on the assumption that, as long as they already have the (bad) name, they might as well play the "game" (do that of which they've been accused anyway). If you're going to call me a whore or a womanizer just for talking to a person of the opposite sex in a pizza parlor, I might just as well have sex. After all, what difference does it make in your eyes, anyway?

Bottom line: If males and females have no opportunities to be together under reputable circumstances, they'll seek disreputable ones.