Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Nobody's Perfect, but...

Remember when Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder broke up? That was sad. In my opinion, sadder than the Brad and Jennifer split and the Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins split combined. Johnny and Winona were so beautiful together in that early 90s brooding brunette sort of way. And the tattoo. Oh, the tattoo!

Can you imagine having your name followed by the word forever on Johnny Depp’s arm? He must have been really into her. And I totally get it; I was really into her too. During the late 80s/early 90s, I pretty much wanted to be her- especially in Heathers and Reality Bites. If tattoo transfusions were an option, I would have signed up.

As you can imagine, I was pretty disappointed when I heard about the whole shoplifting scandal. Considering the number of times I rented Heathers, Winona should have had plenty of money to buy whatever she wanted.

And I don’t know how I feel about the excuse she gave to the security guard who caught her: that she was shoplifting to research for a role.

On the one hand, it sounds as lame as Lindsay Lohan telling the police that the pants she was wearing with cocaine in the pockets were not hers.

But, on the other hand, maybe she did actually think it was okay. Celebrities have their asses kissed all day. They get sent to rehab instead of jail. They are sex addicts rather than cheaters. They suffer from exhaustion rather than coming down from drugs. So, it is possible that she actually didn’t know any better; maybe she thought that if she needed to research for a role it would be totally cool because she was Winona ‘Effin Ryder.

Which of those scenarios is worse: ignoring the rules or ignorance?

I often ask myself the same question regarding the errors found in my students’ essays.

Is it worse when they actually know better but don’t proofread their work as carefully as they should and end up making silly errors (e.g., writing pubic instead of public)?

Or is it worse when they make errors because they don’t know the rules (e.g., sticking commas all over the place so that reading it gives you whiplash)?

14 comments:

Christopher said...

I'm not normally too hard on celebrities when they do stupid stuff. If I had money and fame I imagine I'd do some pretty messed up stuff that would get me in the tabloids. I think sometimes we forget that just because someone is a celebrity that they don't have the same issues and baggage that we all carry around - and that have baggage all put under a microscope. I don't feel bad for celebrities that go wild, but I can sort of understand.

As for students, I'd say the students that don't proofread are the worse ones. They make mistakes out of laziness. A lack of knowledge can be corrected with hard work, laziness tends to stick.

Nathan Lurz said...

Depends on who you're talking about I guess...if you're referring to the person, it's the former, if you're referring to society or the teacher or whomever, it's the latter.

Excited to follow your blog!

HulaBuns said...

I'd say it's a toss up. Either way they aren't putting the energy into the writing they should. However, I'm probably just as bad as some of them with the commas. I just thank you for not critiquing my writing on my blog. ;)

Shannon said...

I don't have an answer to your question, but I do love your writing style like whoa. That counts for something, eh?

Shannon said...

Oh, and I loved Winona so much that I named my first hamster Winona Ryder "MY LAST NAME". She ruled my world.

Jeff Beesler said...

I think, to a certain extent, ignoring the rules is the worse of the two crimes. Ignorance can always be remedied by learning. Ignoring the rules, however, as has already been said, demonstrates key disregard for established protocol. In certain novels, this works. In students' essays? Not so much.

Yarnlady said...

Maybe she is Bi-polar?

I would tend to agree with Christopher about the students. Now a days, with spell check, it should be easy. On the other hand, remembering/knowing all the rules and regulations about speech is really hard. I wonder when they will come up with a grammar check?

David Macaulay said...

I loved Winona - so talented and hmmm - what's she doing now? Think I saw her in Wal-Mart recently. Well we loved Hugh and Liz, even though they were probably only together for the publicity.

Hart Johnson said...

I have a friend who had Winona bum a cigarette from him in the early 90s... maybe you successfully bum stuff for decades and the lines get blurred... or not. I DO think with fame there can be a little 'what can I get away with' thrill seeking thing. And being a rebel I sort of get on some level. (like making up a word in a book to see if you can get it past your editor)--but yes... I guess the distinction between ignorance and ignoring is whose fault it is (the former being something about the system, the latter about the individual in question)

I'm putting this one on Winona, but will be open minded about her motivation.

Anonymous said...

Hmmmm, that`s a tough question. I think carelessness and not proofreading are more aggravating than ignorance. If they just don`t know, then at least there is hope that that they can learn something new. If they are just sloppy and don`t care, then you`re dealing with an attitude rather than an aptitude.

And for the record, I think if I was stupid enough to let Johnny Depp slip from my hands, I`d probably turn to petty criminality too. I mean, come on, we`re talking about Johnny Depp here! - G

Joanna St. James said...

I know! it was the Johnny Depp thing that did her in, poor thing.
Carelessnes irks me more than ignorance anytime, and I know if i get a bad grade for something I could have avoided it hurts me more too.

Talli Roland said...

Johnny and Winona! I'd forgotten they ever went out! Sigh. Young love... and shoplifting...

Theresa Milstein said...

Heathers is one of the best movies. Ever.

I feel the same way you do about Winona Ryder and Johnny Depp. And what poor judgement did he have to take "Winona Forever" and change it to "Wino Forever". He's got kids. That's worse than shoplifting in my opinion. He could've stuck "Judd" in there and given a nod to country music. Though that may have dropped his coolness factor a bit.

She wanted the thrill of getting away with something and lied. Maybe that tattoo could've been changed around to "Winona is a liar" or would that be mean?

Lesson: Really think through your tattoos.

kathryn said...

I don't know. I think that everyone should be forced to use some sort of spell check software and then try to *manually* correct their spelling/grammatical mistakes.

As for celebs? I know they're in the public eye...but they're not in *my* eye. I figure I give them about as much attention as they give me.