Month: September 2017

American Man Mocked After He Taunts Singapore Newspaper for Using British English

Don Lovell is a consultant from Atlanta, Georgia. For some reason, he decided to take issue with the Straits Times’ use of British English on Twitter and would not quit when corrected. Out of embarrassment, perhaps, he removed his Twitter account.

Earlier this afternoon, the Singaporean publication tweeted out a report about a driver who was arrested in an alleged drunk, errrr “drink” driving case.

Annoyed by the usage of British standards, good ‘ol Lovell insisted that the phrase that should have been used was “drunk driving”.

Not to be outdone by a damn dictionary definition, Lovell said that ST — a newspaper that’s been around since 1845 during the British colonial rule with a British man as its founding editor — should actually be using American English instead.

Lovell then questioned the paper’s understanding of linguistics. A sincere query posed to an entity that’s been around since before he was even born.

“You don’t understand linguistics, do you? Where English comes from? Oh, that’s good. How about where English flourishes?”

To see how other Twitter users responded to his tirade, read more about the story on Coconuts Singapore here.

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KB Home CEO’s Bonus Cut After Sexist and Homophobic Remarks

Three days after the episode went viral, his company announced that his year-end bonus will be cut by 25 percent as a result of his behavior. He was also warned that similar incidents in the future would result in his firing.

Jeffrey Mezger, chief executive of the homebuilder KB Home, will take a 25 percent cut to his year-end bonus as a result of his sexist and homophobic outburst against his neighbor, the comedian Kathy Griffin, the company said Thursday.

Any similar incidents in the future, the company also said, would result in Mr. Mezger’s dismissal.

Mr. Mezger was recorded on Saturday by security cameras at Ms. Griffin’s home in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles shouting profanities and derogatory comments at Ms. Griffin and her boyfriend, Randy Bick, after they had called the police to complain about noise from Mr. Mezger’s backyard.

The audio recording, published by HuffPost, provoked an immediate backlash on social media.

Read more about it at the New York Times.

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British Museum Criticized for Saying Asian Names Are Confusing

During an interactive Twitter session #AskACurator, a curator was asked about accessibility to a diverse range of people, to which the reply was: “Sometimes Asian names can be confusing, so we have to be careful about using too many.”

That tweet caused an uproar, and British Museum tried to clarify that statement, but dug itself into a deeper hole:

Eventually, they decided to apologize:

Read more about it at The Guardian.

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