Wednesday 19 September 2007

PSA


Attention Fran Kelly, Michael Carr-Gregg and other assorted media types who really should know better: the name of the little girl found at Southern Cross Station is Qian Xun Xue, not Pumpkin. A Pumpkin is a type of food, or, in rare instances, a giant vegetable grown by obsessives.

If her given name was Mary or Isabel, you wouldn't still be calling her by the word written on her clothes, would you.



Calvin Klein in Back To The Future


23 comments:

Mindy said...

A certain store is probably enjoying all the free publicity though. They must have been chuffed when the media described Qian Xun Xue as well dressed.

Ampersand Duck said...

I can always count on you to articulate what I'm thinking while I listen to the news...

TimT said...

Apparently a certain former President of the United States has a ridiculous enthusiasm for oversized novelty vegetables.

Drewzel said...

As a teenager of the 80's, I have a very soft spot for ol' Calvin Klein there.

Tony.T said...

Is that where they got the name? Lucky for them she wasn't wearing Osh Kosh B'Gosh.

PS: Pumpkin was accepted as an answer at trivia tonight.

Anonymous said...

given that it took NZ police 9 days to look in the boot of the car, we perhaps should be grateful they gave her a name at all...besides will she need a name in a detention centre as an illegal?

lucy tartan said...

excellent points.

Fran K did it again this morning, I noticed.

Anonymous said...

If most Anglos can't pronouced Russian names right (Sokoloff is "Suh-kah-LOFF not "SOkOlOff" for example) they have no hope with Chinese sadly.

Anonymous said...

Spot on, Ms Tartan. (And henceforth I would like to be called 'Camper').

lucy tartan said...

Hi A.T.; I get what you're saying, but ABC annnouncers and Fairfax subeditors (working in print, btw) can be expected to take some care with these matters - in fact I'm sure the ABC have a committee whose purpose is to set standards for spoken English.

But I also think it's really important to show respect to people by at least trying to say their names. I can't give nicknames to the students in my classes with non-Anglo names. I just have to accept that they're going to laugh at me and correct me until I get it right (if that ever happens.)

Anonymous said...

Someone in a letter to The Age today made the point that the recently abandoned baby "Catherine" wasn't nicknamed Bonds or Baby-Gro by the media...

Mindy said...

Mysterious, but small, package posted today. Hopefully with you by Monday or Tuesday. Hope you like it.

Jennifer said...

Thank you! I was thinking exactly the same thing this morning.

redambition said...

thank you for that.

it's really been irking me. If Triple J news readers can use her name, why can't the rest of the media?

Tim said...

According to David Koch, Sunrise is still referring to the little girl as "Pumpkin" on the advice of Channel 7's lawyers. I notice that other news/"news" outlets seem not to be subject to the same restriction.

lucy tartan said...

I heard that was the case, Tim. I want some of what Channel 7's lawyers are on.

Ariel said...

Excellent point.

Ann ODyne said...

I waded through all 152 comments on this topic at the LP thread.

So now I can say "SchShen SchU" as well as KRudd would; but the child will be glad of her name being a mystery to us now, when she is saved from
the hell of being asked

"weren't you DUMPED at the station years ago?"

every time she gives her name in the future.

Imagine that Azaria Chamberlain comes out of the desert next week, and tries to enrol for voting.

It must be awful to have everybody know one's name, so at least the dear child has been saved that.

Jeremy said...

Nicely illustrated.

Anonymous said...

His name is Marty McFly in "Back To the Future"!!
Not Calvin Klein!!!

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