It would appear that I'm not the only person on the planet who was inappropriately gleeful on hearing the news that Blair Hornstine has had her acceptance into Harvard rescinded.
One of the consequences of Harvard's late action is that virtually every college and university in the nation has already closed their incoming freshman class; moreover, given the gravity of the plagiarism charges against Hornstine, it seems unlikely that she'll ever get accepted to an elite university, even the second time around. How unfortunate. I've heard that the dorms at Rutgers are quite nice and full of very sociable people.
"I am not a crook," Richard Nixon said in 1973; "I am not a plagiarist," Blair Hornstine says thirty years later. Her non-apology apology for her plagiarism is not only a staggering act of hubris but comes across as the cries of thief who's been caught with her hand in the cookie jar yet continues to claim that she didn't do it. At least Jayson Blair, Hornstine's namesake and spiritual partner in crime, admitted to his malfeasance; his gleeful boasting, while ugly and distasteful, at least demonstrated that he was willing to take responsibility for his misdeeds.
Does Hornstine really not know that what she did was wrong? Does she really think that she is due $2.7 million dollars because she wasn't named sole valedictorian? Maybe she does; maybe she really does think that the world owes her something. And if she does? I feel just a bit sorry for her. Twenty years down the road she'll be one of those tired, pinched and angry social x-rays, wondering why her husband is trading her in for a newer, younger, hotter model; angry that the world hasn't given her her due, her rightful place in the firmament; lonely as the circle of friends she hasn't alienated grows smaller and tighter.
Personally, I find it vastly amusing that Hornstine, who sued a public school district for $2.7 million, claims that her "Dream Job" is poverty lawyer.
No word yet on if she's gonna sue Harvard.
"Social X-Rays"? Didn't you steal that from Bonfire of the Vanities?? Plagiarist!!!
hee
once again, frankenstein, you have summed up my thoughts better than i could have. well done!
She wasn't going to sue, at least not directly...