Lead Stories
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In August the Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence, Massachusetts, reported that local superintendent of schools Wilfredo T. Laboy had recently failed the basic English proficiency test required of all teachers in the state–for the third time. A state education commissioner said that Laboy was doing “an excellent job” but that he was still going to have to pass the test. Laboy, who earns $156,560 a year and who recently put two dozen teachers on unpaid leave for having weak English skills, called the test “stupid.”
Reuters reported in June that painter Rainer Herpel, 51, of Bad Ems, Germany, is speaking again after 29 years of voluntary silence. Herpel, who lives with his 78-year-old mother and titles all of his paintings with Beatles lyrics, stopped talking in 1974 when his father prevented him from enrolling in art school, but resumed speaking after his father died last year.
Rap as a Second Language: In a June copyright infringement case, British High Court judge Kim Lewison dismissed charges made by one English rap group against another, saying that he simply couldn’t understand the words to the contested recording. Lyrics like “shizzle my nizzle,” ruled Lewison, are “for practical purposes a foreign language.” The judge therefore could not determine whether the plaintiff’s alteration of the lyrics impugned the reputation of their author.
