I don't think I've ever seen a news story as perfect as this one. It tells the story almost Greek in its poetry, of a father, Terrence Philo, who complained to the administrators of his son's school that the boy was given a "Crybaby Award" by his basketball coach.

Do you see? The whiney father, the whimpering son? O, how the sins of the father are visited upon the basketball playing son! O, how we are all doomed to repeat the crybaby's cycle!

It went down like this: The coach notified the boy that he'd be receiving a "special trophy" at the team's end-of-season ceremony, and he wasn't lying. After the other players were presented with what were presumably more earnestly intended trophies and certificates, Philo the Younger received the "figure of a baby atop a pedestal engraved with [his] name" (with Philo the Elder in the photo above.) The coup de grâce, however, was that the boy's name was spelled incorrectly.

And shame is visited upon the once great House of Philo!

But perhaps even better than the content of the article is the meta-indignity it seems to have heaped upon the Philos. From the article, we know that the pictured trophy is engraved with the incorrect spelling of the boy's name. So, it is not Terrance. We know, too, that the father's name is Terrence Philo, Sr. In the photo caption, we see that the boy's name is Terence Philo, Jr. The use of Jr. and Sr. normally implies that the pair share a name, and so we are led to believe that CNN committed the same crime as the hated coach against either the father or the son -- misspelling their first name.

It is also possible that the names are spelled correctly, in which case the use of Jr. and Sr. is inappropriate and the Philos deserve every bit of the shame they've suffered.

Analogcabin @ 12:07 PM
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