February 12, 2010
It’s the Style, NOT Mensa Invitational
Dear Joyce:
Thanks for taking the time to check out the provenance of the “Mensa Invitational” list you then posted on your blog.
You’re so close, though.
The “blog post” (see below) you referred to was actually the introduction to one of the weekly contests of The Style Invitational, which I run. And two Style Invitational contests from 1998 are the sources of many — but not all — of the neologisms in the lists above. (For example, “decafalon” isn’t a one-letter change from “decathlon,” is it? Or “caterpallor”?) Much better to see the real thing — every week at washingtonpost.com/styleinvitational. read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 11, 2010
File this under “The Best Laugh of My Week”
This landed in my inbox today. It was identified as the Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational, which asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
But a quick Google search revealed that the Post takes no credit for it. On January 28, 2007, a WP blog post with the byline “The Empress” said the following:
read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 9, 2010
Nicole Kibblehouse’s Presentation at Saturday’s Memorial Mass at St. Catherine’s of Alexandria Church
WESTFORD, Mass. – For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Livy’s best friend. I know that none of you were probably as close to her as I was before she died, and that’s why I’m standing here this morning.
I don’t want you to remember her as the picture you see in the newspaper or on the news everyday, I want you to remember her as if she was your best friend. I want you to know the little things that should never be forgotten.
Liv is the most understanding person I’ve ever met and the best listener by far. I can ramble on and on all day about the most random and uneventful stories, and she will still ask me questions and laugh. She’s dependable. I can text or call her at any time and she will always answer.
The only time she lets me down is if she hangs out with someone else besides me.
read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 6, 2010
Gathering at Westford Academy Ends a Week of Mourning
By Joyce Pellino Crane
WESTFORD, Mass. – The bright smile was evident in every photo displayed on the oversized screen at an afternoon vigil memorializing Olivia Marchand, 17, who, police say, was the tragic victim of domestic violence.
Westford Academy students honored Marchand’s memory one final time, this afternoon, with a five-minute photo essay depicting their classmate from her elementary school days through her senior year—an effervescent girl surrounded by friends or nuzzling her horse Lola.
The assembly inside the school’s 850-seat Performing Arts Center drew so many mourners that it spilled over into a gymnasium.
Police say Marchand was shot with a 9 mm handgun by her father, Brian Marchand, 59, who also critically wounded his wife, Jody, 50, and then killed himself with a gunshot.
read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 6, 2010
Community Gathers to Memorialize Olivia Marchand, 17, Domestic Violence Victim
by Joyce Pellino Crane
WESTFORD, Mass. – A high school senior beseeched the community to “Live for Liv,” this morning, inside an overflowing church where her fellow classmates, their families, and friends gathered to memorialize a student who died violently this week.
The early morning Mass at St. Catherine of Alexandria Church brought together a community seeking solace over the death of a popular high school senior and the critical wounding of her mother who, police say, were shot Monday by the student’s father, before he turned the gun on himself.
Olivia Marchand, 17, died at her Makepeace Road home from a 9 mm gunshot wound. Her mother, Jody Marchand, 50, was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester where a hospital representative, today, said he had “no information on that patient.”
Brian Marchand, 59, Olivia’s father and Jody’s husband, died at the scene, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone.
read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 5, 2010
This 29-year-old man acquired over one million followers on Twitter just by posting comments made by his 74-year-old father. You’ll laugh your head off, I guarantee.
February 2, 2010
Jody Marchand, mother of Olivia
by Joyce Pellino Crane
WESTFORD, MASS. – The day after a Westford Academy student was fatally shot by her father with a 9 mm. handgun, according to police, dozens of students gathered inside the public high school’s auditorium to handwrite their sorrow on rolls of paper stretched across the stage.
About 70 seniors gathered this afternoon to grieve collectively for Olivia Marchand, a popular high school senior who was planning to attend the University of Vermont in the fall as a freshman.
Instead she was found dead at 8:37 p.m. yesterday inside her parent’s master bedroom on Makepeace Road from a gunshot wound, the victim of a murder-suicide, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone. Leone said her father, Brian Marchand, 59 shot and killed his 17-year-old daughter, and shot his wife, Jody Marchand, 50, who was med-flighted to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in Worcester where she remains in critical condition.
read more »
Sphere: Related Content
February 2, 2010
Serene Community Again Rocked by Apparent Violence
Westford, MA – Two people in a Makepeace Road home died tonight and a third was airlifted to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, according to Westford Police Captain Joseph Roy. The incident occurred at 8:37 p.m. Roy did not identify the victims pending notification of next of kin and would not specify a cause of death.
Regional broadcast media reported that the fatalities were due to gunshot wounds.
The incident remains under investigation, Roy said.
Until recently, violent crimes in this pastoral community were rare. But on January 9, Frederick Leduc of Forge Village Road allegedly shot his wife Karen and sustained a gunshot wound under his chin. Karen Leduc died a few days later and Leduc was charged with first degree murder while recuperating at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
JOYCE PELLINO CRANE
Sphere: Related Content
