Girl's mom (Or the girl? I dunno) lies for some stinkin' Hannah Montana tickets

[Sufurin Scorda]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071229/ap_on_re_us/fake_essay_4

GARLAND, Texas - A 6-year-old girl who won four tickets to a Hannah Montana concert with an essay falsely claiming her father died in Iraq isn't going to the show after all.

The contest's sponsor, a store chain named Club Libby Lu, withdrew the prize Saturday and awarded it to another contestant. It didn't identify the new winner.

"With this decision, we hope to revive the intended spirit of the contest, which was designed to make a little girl's holidays extra special," Club Libby Lu chief executive Mary Drolet said in a statement Saturday.

Officials of the Chicago-based chain surprised the girl on Friday at a Club Libby Lu store in mall in this Dallas suburb. Club Libby Lu sells clothes, accessories and games for young girls.

The girl won a makeover that included a blonde Hannah Montana wig, as well as the grand prize: airfare for four to Albany, N.Y., and four tickets to the sold-out Hannah Montana concert on Jan. 9.

The opening line in the essay was: "My daddy died this year in Iraq."

The girl's mother had told Club Libby Lu officials that the girl's father died April 17 in a roadside bombing in Iraq, company spokeswoman Robyn Caulfield said. But the mother, Priscilla Ceballos, admitted later Friday that the essay and the military information she provided about her daughter's father were untrue.

"We did the essay and that's what we did to win. We did whatever we could do to win," Ceballos said in an interview Friday with KDFW-TV of Dallas. "But when (Caulfield) asked me if this essay is true, I said 'No, this essay is not true.'"

The Associated Press was unable to find a phone number for Ceballos on Saturday.

Wow, what a wonderful role model she is. I don't know if she told her kid to write the essay about that (or helped her with it), wrote it herself, or just let the kid make up the lie, but she's really friggin' stupid if she thinks she can get away with it.

Why is this dumb show so popular anyway? It's just another teen drama show like the other five thousand they show on Disney and some other channels. I will never ever know why people my age think this stuff is entertaining.

[techmaster-glitch]

Why is this dumb show so popular anyway? It's just another teen drama show like the other five thousand they show on Disney and some other channels. I will never ever know why people my age think this stuff is entertaining.

You and me both, Dak.

This is just horrible on so many levels. The only good thing I can think of was that she had the guts to admit it was fake, but that in no way redeems what happened.
It just kills me to know that there is crap like this happeneing.

[Distracting]

I've never understood why people have such an obsession with winning anything and everything. I mean, there's competition, and then there's obsession.

I also agree with both Tech and Dak. Those shows aren't interesting or unique...

[Sufurin Scorda]

It's not that they have an obsession with winning everything, Hero. They just have an obsession about Hannah Montana.

Pretty much every 12 year old girl LOVES it nowadays, and most parents are too much of wussies to turn the damn TV off, and want to spoil their little brats so they'll be the "best parents ever."

And yeah, they aren't unique at all. It's. The. Same. 'Ol. Crap.

"I'm failing a class and it's totally not my fault and it's totally the teacher's fault because he/she's a big butthead and hates me!"

"The guy/girl I like doesn't notice me and I want him/her to notice me but I don't wanna get embarrassed! *Gets embarrassed* Omigaaaaaaawd I'm so embarraaaaaaaassed!"

"I did something I shouldn't've done but I don't want my parents/friends/whoever finding out so I have to fix what I did without anyone knowing!" (And this one may or may not include skipping school to do it, lying about their age, or something else similar.)

It's all the same teen drama crap every teenager's experienced or saw/heard/read about. It's just different people on different shows. I don't know how it's so entertaining.

[The Light]

That's just . . . wrong.  I'd have to knock the crap out of the mother if I ever met them in real life.

I only recently learned just who Hannah Montana even is.  My response was,  "So it's just a slightly more popular version of that Spears girl?"  Celebrities just need to go away and leave us intelligent folk alone.

[Damaris]

Libby Lu's is a hedonist, consumption driven, demeaning training ground for vapid, appearance obsessed little whores.

[Jim Halisstrad]

Libby Lu's is a hedonist, consumption driven, demeaning training ground for vapid, appearance obsessed little whores.

Really?  You know, it's about time I get some cash back on this Tape Worm farm I bought.

[RobbieThe1st]

Well, if the rules didn't state that the essay had to be true, then its sort of fair in my view - And, when asked if it was true, she said no, so she didn't do anything wrong if my theory is correct.

I mean, its creative writing. Sure, its a bit tasteless, cheating? like that, however, if this was just a sweepstakes, then what she said should have had no bearing upon it, and I don't see any problem with someone like her taking advantage of whoever decided to give it to her based on her father dying in Iraq...

Sure, if the rules clearly stated that the essay had to be true, then yes, she would be completely in the wrong, and the present given to the next person.

Either way, it looks to me, that because she used the word Iraq, everyones getting into an uproar about it - It probably wouldn't have gotten the same attention had she said her father died in a car wreck.

Unfortunately, there isn't enough information to see exactly what happened here, as typical of these type of news stories.


-RobbieThe1st

[Jigsaw Forte]

Everything on Disney Channel is that kind of dreck.

I may not like most of the shows on Nickelodeon anymore, but I give them fuggin' CREDIT for trying. Every Disney show is exactly like the other ones, maybe with a change of scenery.

Ironically, this girl's plight sounds like it could've been a Disney show all on its own, so maybe it's the whinyness that comes with their formula and not the formulaic-ness itself.

[Alondro]

Libby Lu's is a hedonist, consumption driven, demeaning training ground for vapid, appearance obsessed little whores.

Really?  You know, it's about time I get some cash back on this Tape Worm farm I bought.

Tape worm far?!  I am SO there! 

Yay!  Now I can buy a replacement for Stringy, my old intestinal pal who got flushed last month after I had a bout of the cholera.   

But yes, children these days are even stupider than when I was a child.  But of course, I was hyper-advanced, having read my mother's high school biology book when I was 5.  Thus, I knew I was destined to rule the world!   

[rabid_fox]

I've never heard of this show, but that little girl will go far in life with her callous attitude to creative lying for self-gain. Here's hoping the lesson she learns from this incident is "Don't get caught".

[Alondro]

I've never heard of this show, but that little girl will go far in life with her callous attitude to creative lying for self-gain. Here's hoping the lesson she learns from this incident is "Don't get caught".

She'll have a great future in New Jersey politics, where the message is, "It doesn't matter if you get caught, because we'll get you off and you'll get even richer after you've been prosecuted!"

I just heard an update of the UMDNJ scandel, which proved beyond a shadow of a doubt how true it is. 

First NJ had 'The Mob', now we have the legislature... which we call "The Blob".   

[Sufurin Scorda]

Well, if the rules didn't state that the essay had to be true, then its sort of fair in my view - And, when asked if it was true, she said no, so she didn't do anything wrong if my theory is correct.

[blah blah blah...more text hur...]

True. But she started the essay with "My daddy died in Iraq." Usually when people hear something like that, they think it's true. Maybe she wouldn't've gotten in trouble if she said something like "This is a story about a girl whose dad died in Iraq" instead. Then there'd be less of a chance of people thinking "OMG HER FATHER'S DEAD, THAT POOR CHILD. *Pity pity pity*"

[Kenji]

I'm gonna have to go with Robbie on this.
Especially the bit about 'if they chose her simply based on the Iraq" thing.

[Valynth]

Well, if the rules didn't state that the essay had to be true, then its sort of fair in my view - And, when asked if it was true, she said no, so she didn't do anything wrong if my theory is correct.

[blah, blah, blah, making excuses]

An essay by nature is considered to either be factual, opinionated, but perferably both.  "My daddy died in Iraq" is NOT a statement of opinion as such it is interperated to be a factual statement.  Since it is to be interperated as such the girl has lied.  This is NOT a creative writing excerise otherwise it would not be called an "essay contest", it would be called a "short story contest."

So even under your definition the girl should have her reward removed since a "short story" does not qualify as an "essay" as such her writing does not meet the parameters defined by the usage of the words "essay contest."

[Kenji]

Well, if the rules didn't state that the essay had to be true, then its sort of fair in my view - And, when asked if it was true, she said no, so she didn't do anything wrong if my theory is correct.

[blah, blah, blah, making excuses]

An essay by nature is considered to either be factual, opinionated, but perferably both.  "My daddy died in Iraq" is NOT a statement of opinion as such it is interperated to be a factual statement.  Since it is to be interperated as such the girl has lied.  This is NOT a creative writing excerise otherwise it would not be called an "essay contest", it would be called a "short story contest."

So even under your definition the girl should have her reward removed since a "short story" does not qualify as an "essay" as such her writing does not meet the parameters defined by the usage of the words "essay contest."

If a woman can get off the hook saying "I didn't think my coffee was hot, they didn't tell me", then take your rules and regulations and toss em away, please, unless everything is stated in black and white. This is America. Sense is not allowed.

[Valynth]

Well, if the rules didn't state that the essay had to be true, then its sort of fair in my view - And, when asked if it was true, she said no, so she didn't do anything wrong if my theory is correct.

[blah, blah, blah, making excuses]

An essay by nature is considered to either be factual, opinionated, but perferably both.  "My daddy died in Iraq" is NOT a statement of opinion as such it is interperated to be a factual statement.  Since it is to be interperated as such the girl has lied.  This is NOT a creative writing excerise otherwise it would not be called an "essay contest", it would be called a "short story contest."

So even under your definition the girl should have her reward removed since a "short story" does not qualify as an "essay" as such her writing does not meet the parameters defined by the usage of the words "essay contest."

If a woman can get off the hook saying "I didn't think my coffee was hot, they didn't tell me", then take your rules and regulations and toss em away, please, unless everything is stated in black and white. This is America. Sense is not allowed.

She only got off the hook 'cause Mcdonalds didn't want any sort of bad press even though they would have won.  They have enough of that already.

[Kenji]

Any court who would take that seriously or even accept it has stepped on common sense and decency.

[Valynth]

Any court who would take that seriously or even accept it has stepped on common sense and decency.

...It never got that far.  McDonalds settled out of court.  Again in an attempt to avoid bad press, but ended up just putting up a neon sign reading "sue me."

[Kenji]

Any court who would take that seriously or even accept it has stepped on common sense and decency.

...It never got that far.  McDonalds settled out of court.  Again in an attempt to avoid bad press, but ended up just putting up a neon sign reading "sue me."

Really? Musta misread.. then put it this way: any country that allows idiots to think that way shouldn't talk about upholding rules and regulations. Better?

[Jigsaw Forte]

Any court who would take that seriously or even accept it has stepped on common sense and decency.

...It never got that far.  McDonalds settled out of court.  Again in an attempt to avoid bad press, but ended up just putting up a neon sign reading "sue me."

In the woman's defense (and I hate this story being taken out of context), McDonald's superheats their coffee because it's made in an 'industrial' coffeepot (so they can make fewer pots a day without it going cold) so the coffee actually IS hotter than your average cuppa by anywhere from an extra 60-100 degrees above and beyond the norm.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

In the woman's defense (and I hate this story being taken out of context), McDonald's superheats their coffee because it's made in an 'industrial' coffeepot (so they can make fewer pots a day without it going cold) so the coffee actually IS hotter than your average cuppa by anywhere from an extra 60-100 degrees above and beyond the norm.

... and in that particular store, they'd overheated (above what they're supposed to)...

On the other hand, they have a warning on the cup "caution: contents hot", the person handing it to you will warn you as well, and you can usually feel the heat through the polystyrene anyway. Or paper, if it's one of those cardboard ones.

It's, like, duh, gimme a hot cup of coffee, but don't make it hot, mmkay? *sigh*

[superluser]

...It never got that far.  McDonalds settled out of court.  Again in an attempt to avoid bad press, but ended up just putting up a neon sign reading "sue me."

That would be wrong.

She was awarded $2.9 million by a jury, though the amount was later reduced to $640,000.  There was no settlement until after the jury reached its verdict.

At any rate, the facts of the case are these:

(1) McDonald's overheats its coffee.
(2) An elderly lady spilled her McDonald's coffee on herself.
(3) As a result of the overheated coffee, the lady got third degree burns and required skin grafts to get well.
(4) These skin grafts cost her $11,000.
(5) The lady asked McDonald's for $20,000--enough to cover medical bills and a small amount for her pain and suffering.
(6) McDonald's offered her $800.
(7) She took them to court, and the jury (not the lady) decided that she should get $2.9 million.

[Alondro]

Bah, weak humans getting scalded by mere coffee!

Actually, to get rid of a few little eczema spots that show up now and then, I scald them with a boiling hot tea bag.  Sure, the skin blisters and peels off, but when it heals the eczema spot is gone!

I suspect it has something to do with heat shock protein activation decreasing the histiocyte autoimmune activation.  Or just all the cells involved in it are dead.  Either way works!   

But anyway, I've spilled my own coffee on myself alot, and I have it boiling!  I guess I'm just rather resistant.   

[Netrogo]

I've gotten various forms of hot liquids on myself before and the only time I've suffered any kind of burn, past my skin turning slightly red from the heat, was when I overheated butter in the microwave and spilled it on my hand. That shit is like napalm. Anything else I usually jump and shake it off instantly, y'know the whole physical acknowledgement of pain and all that. How do these people let the coffee stay on long enough to get a third degree burn requiring skin grafts? I'm assuming she had clothes on which means she let it sit there and seep through her clothes to her skin, which means it was there for about half a minute atleast.

Slowest. Old. Bat. Ever!

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

IIRC, she was in a car, and spilt it upon her lap.

The pain is probably enough to explain the inability to get out of the car, plus traffic, plus seatbelt, etc etc.

Alondro, McD's does a lot to make sure the coffee is still at max temp when you get it home. So it's still ~90C, not falling rapidly - the open mug will drop temp fast, whereas McD's uses a closed polystyrene cup...