Still crazy after all these years

             Message: Never -- never -- do academic research on Wikipedia (Part One of my piece on Wikipedia) Students should never -- emphasize, never -- use Wikipedia in academic writing. That is my message to them in any of my classes. That does not mean that Wikipedia is worthless. When I wanted to know how old Barbra Streisand is, I scurried to Wiki. It is usually reliable, and her age is no big deal -- except to make those of us who are aging Baby Boomers feel a little more depressed.  However, the story about John Seigenthaler is one that everyone should read. I mention this case any time that I teach research writing.  I have the URL for Mr. Seigenthaler's essay below. Essentially, he was the victim of "Internet character assassination." You need to read his opinion piece from USA Today in 2005: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-11-29-wikipedia-edit_x.htm. Seigenthaler, now 86-years-...

What has happened to our beloved Franco? "Franco’s Tiananmen Square moment" Oh, how I yearn for the Franco Harris of old, the affable, hard-running and successful Pittsburgh Steeler and Penn State Nittany Lion running back. He was so beloved by Pittsburgh that some in the city paid a sculptor to build a statue recalling Franco in arguably the greatest moment in Pittsburgh Steeler history: The Immaculate Reception.  In fact, the Steelers built a monument of their own and unveiled it last Dec. on the 40th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. <http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20121222/steelers-immaculate-reception.ap/> Today, many in Pittsburgh and in Penn State are wondering what has happened to be beloved player who became a successful businessman after his football career ended.  In fact, he is almost a cartoonish character with some of what he has done since the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke in late 2011.  Today, the students at Penn St...

                                                               ... a difficult conundrum More than 89 years ago, my uncle was killed by the Ku Klux Klan in Lilly, Pa. Phil Conrad was not an African-American; he was the son of an Irish-immigrant mother who, along with his German-American father, raised him as a Roman Catholic. The KKK was targeting Catholics in that era, not African-Americans, as they did in the aftermath of the Civil War. My Uncle Phil, whom I never knew, may have just caught a stray bullet on that night, but recent evidence indicates that a Klansman may have targeted him in the aftermath of the burning of crosses in Lilly. More than 400 Klansmen descended on Lilly on that fateful April evening, one in which three men were ultimately killed and approximately 20 more were injured. The KKK had instiga...