We now all know that Chris Spence, the Toronto District School Board director is just another high profile personality to be accused of plagiarism. Our old pal Maggie, I Wonder If Anybody Reads Me Anymore, Wente from the Globe and Mail was one of the more renowned journalists to got caught a few weeks ago and soon, there will be others. In fact, given the new reality of today's computer generation, this parade of liars and cheaters will seem endless in the years to come.
As we all now know, the internet reveals all eventually and has this uncanny ability to not forget anything.
It makes me wonder how common plagiarism has been in years past, when there was no internet, when it was relatively easy to "get away with it". Maybe we'll find out some day. In the meantime...yawn....we'll expose those who do get caught and make them crawl back into their hole with shame.
Let it be known, in this blog, I don't think I've plagiarized once in my six years of writing these tidbits. In fact, I derive great joy from quoting better writers than me. It gives me some sense of relief to know there are at least a few well written sentences published here from time to time. That gives me license to continue my shameless slaughter of the English language.
My favourite plagiarism story is a Woody Allen line: "I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam: I looked into the soul of the boy sitting next to me."