boobquake and taboo avoidance, anti-fan page (unrelated)

[Victor Steinbok]

Today, apparently, is the boobquake day. The general idea is to show
extra cleavage today to see if it causes an earthquake, in response to a
predictably idiotic comment from an Iranian cleric. It seems to be all
over the news, but, in particular, I picked it up from ABC.

http://bit.ly/b5eDpX
> It all started a week ago, when Purdue University senior Jennifer
> McCreight, 22, wrote a blog post about some "supernatural thinking"
> put forward by Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, an Iranian prayer leader.
> "Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray,
> corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which
> [consequently] increases earthquakes," he was quoted as saying during
> Friday prayers in Tehran.
> Put off by the cleric's comment, the genetics major turned to her blog
> and declared that it was "Time for a Boobquake."

Sedighi's comment is not particularly new or, I would say, newsworthy.
For many years, there's been a giant billboard in Jerusalem, not far
from the Wall--and it is along the path taken by some "Ultra-Orthodox"
to the Wall every day--that tells women to dress modestly "not to arouse
our bad feelings". Basically, no shorts or short sleeves.

The second part is a video that appears on the same page. The caption is
> The 16-year-old called his teacher a lewd name on the social
> networking site.

Watching the bit doesn't help--the reference remains equally cryptic.

Since the name and location (other than "suburban Chicago") were not
specified, perhaps it's the same case that's been percolating since
February.

http://bit.ly/d3tlXy
> While the page referred to the teacher in a "derogatory" manner,
> there's no indication anything went beyond that (i.e., threatening the
> teacher).

OK... this is not much better--"derogatory" is just as cryptic as
"lewd", although the combination might narrow the field somewhat. So,
perhaps NBC fares better... Nope!

http://bit.ly/cyy9a6
>
> The school suspended honor student Justin Bird
> </topics?topic=Justin+Bird> for creating the Facebook fan page "Anyone
> who has had a bad experience or plain dislikes [teacher's name]," and
> allegedly calling the teacher derogatory names. But the boy's family
> says not so fast, the Southtown Star reports.
>

But the NBC version of the story has another interesting tidbit.

> His mother told the Southtown Star Justin has been embroiled in a
> conflict since the beginning of the year but he decided to make the
> fan (or anti-fan) page on Feb. 9.

So, the "fan page" that's dedicated to disliking someone is dubbed
"anti-fan page".

So the "derogatory" apparently came from the internal school report. But
where did "lewd" come from? It seems, "lewd" is peculiar to ABC, as the
local (Chicago--WLS) station is the one that produced the video.

http://bit.ly/awJSrd
> High School District 228 Superintendent Bill Kendall says what Bird
> wrote was "disrespectful,
> inappropriate and lewd. Even though it was done at home, it disrupted
> the school."

OK, now we know who came up with "lewd", but I still have no idea what
he actually said. There is a little progress:

http://bit.ly/bq6UZZ
> Justin Birdcreated a page called 'I hate big daddy V' (V for
> Valiscus--his teacher's last name) and encouraged "anyone who has had
> a bad experience or plain dislikes" the teacher to join.

Could "big daddy" be it?? There is not much else there. Unless his own
comments on the page were much more extensive, this was it. News reports
indicate that the page was up for slightly less than five days and no
one posted /any/ comments.

     VS-)

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