Did Melania Trump Plagiarize?

The news media as well as social media are discussing whether Melania Trump plagiarized Michelle Obama in her speech last night at the Republican nominating convention. As a retired professor with more than 45 years of full-time classroom experience at the university level, I know something about plagiarism. Every university I taught at had a plagiarism policy, as well as a series of procedures for determining whether something that seemed like it actually was plagiarism. Plagiarism means claiming someone else's ideas are your own without giving proper credit. Usually two types are distinguished: plagiarism by paraphrase, and plagiarism by word-for-word copying. The former is more difficult to determine; the latter is relatively easy because the words correspond, either exactly or almost so. In the instance of Melania Trump, the passages from her speech both paraphrase Michelle Obama's and also copy several phrases word for word. If Melania Trump had submitted her speech as a paper or exam at one of my universities, she would have been brought before the plagiarism board or committee, and there is very little doubt in my mind that she would have been found guilty. The punishment for plagiarism varied at the universities where I taught, depending on whether it was a first offender, the source plagiarized--as for instance copying an answer on an in-class exam, or buying a term paper on the Internet and submitting as one's own--and the amount of plagiarism in the text. The minimum penalty for someone guilty of plagiarism was not a slap on the wrist and admonishment never to do it again, but rather failure in the course; and in a severe case or with a repeat offender, suspension or expulsion was the normal penalty.
     The day after the speech, the New York Times ran an investigative report that concluded Melania Trump had drastically altered the speech her speech-writer had prepared for her, and that it was she herself who plagiarized. She had admitted as much to the Times reporter. A few days later, one of the speech-writers claimed that she had done it instead, and this revision seems to have been accepted. In a sense, it does not matter who was responsible; the issue is that the speech was plagiarized. It is bad enough that our public officials have speech-writers; there is a sense in which I admire Melania Trump if she decided to write her own speech instead. Perhaps in Slovenia her schoolteachers did not impress upon her the importance of not plagiarizing the way they do in the US. I can understand how someone new to the game would have looked at what previous nominees' wives said at these Conventions, just as a guide. My guess is that she did write it, because a speech-writer ought to know better--and if she had one, the speech-writer probably did know better and would not have plagiarized. 
    What is most interesting about this incident, of course, is that the wife of a Republican nominee who's been highly critical of President Obama, uttered words and phrases Obama's wife spoke. 

Late spring report 2016

   After a stretch of cool, damp weather it has turned pleasant and dry and sunny. Oddly, although the light red kidney, black coco, and kenearly dry beans that I planted on June 3 emerged in good stands, the provider snap beans emerged poorly and I had to replant yesterday. The levi robinson snaps also required replanting. I say oddly because provider is noted for good early, cool soil emergence. The seeds were grown in 2014, though, so perhaps they don't keep well. The dry bean seeds all were grown last year, as were the levi robinson.
    Levi robinson is a rare variety, grown (as far as I can tell) only in Maine. I got my seeds from the Waldoboro school seed project many years ago, and have been saving them ever since. Their chief good attribute is their excellent flavor. They are strong growers, as a rule, also. They have a smaller second (post-picking) crop than other beans, and they are not as prolific as some; also, they are only average-tasting after freezing. Good sized, stringless, and delicious when fresh. There is a variety called levi that is commonly available as a shell and dry bean, but it is different from this one. Back in the pre-internet days when I belonged to the Seed Savers Exchange, I offered levi robinson but the Exchange mistakenly listed my offering as levi. That was one among a few reasons why I dropped my membership.
   The mild weather has been kind to the broccoli, which requires a cool June if it is going to head up well. A hot spell will result in premature, small heads and a short life.
   The white-throated sparrow, which had been a permanent resident in this part of the island, seems to have been displaced, in the past three years or so, by the song sparrow. These latter behave much as the white-throats, even to the point of nesting in the tall grass by the porch at the rear of the house. Although phoebes had nested here, in the eave of the porch two years ago, and inside the barn last year, they are not nesting here this year. Fewer hermit thrushes are singing at dusk, perhaps because the weather has been so cool in the evenings--almost no nights above fifty degrees F. More bluejays than in past years, slightly fewer crows, and about the same number of warblers. The raucous cry of the pileated woodpecker can be heard from time to time, but I hear fewer downy and hairy woodpeckers knocking on the black locust trees than in past years. Robins, chickadees, nuthatches and goldfinches, the major songbird species here, are ubiquitous as usual.
    I've been doing some outdoor chores in the afternoons in the mild weather. I reserve the mornings for writing, but the afternoons are variable and recently I've been repairing things that I had installed or built or repiared in earlier years. One thinks on making a repair that it will last, and it is unnerving to find out that occasionally it needs to be re-done years later.

Golden Russet apple tree in bloom, May 30, 2016

    This was a good blossom year for the apple trees, and it appears as if the bees were busy pollinating. Depending on what happens during the rest of the season, this could once again be a good year for apples. It's unusual to have two good years in a row. Last year there were more apples on the trees even than in 1995 which was the previous record year, and when we pressed more than a 55-gallon oak barrel could hold.

LePage versus the Natural Resources Council of Maine

     Paul LePage, Republican governor of the state of Maine, bragged on the campaign trail that he would bring business solutions to the state's problems. He had been the chief executive of Marden's, a salvage outlet store known for the deals on cheap merchandise it offered its customers. Maine, of course, is known for its merchandise outlet stores. The competition is cutthroat. No doubt LePage viewed governing the state in the same way he governed his business. Certainly, his tactics show what happens when the people elect a businessman to high public office. A little more than a year ago he came under fire for threatening the Board of Trustees of the Goodwill-Hinckley School that he would withhold special state funding for the school if they chose Mark Eves as their next head, as they had announced they would do. LePage's motive? Eves was the Speaker of the House in the Maine State Legislature, a Democrat. Goodwill-Hinckley caved, and Eves sued the Governor--and lost. LePage claimed Executive Privilege and the courts bought it.

   LePage's latest tactic against his opponents was to send a letter to the top 200 donors to the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), an environmental group. LePage had previously gotten up a "Wanted" poster (right) depicting a NRCM staffer above the words "Job Killers." LePage's letter attacked the NRCM and intended to intimidate the donors, but of course it had the opposite effect. The NRCM publicized LePage's gaffe, noted that the letter was financed illegally by taxpayers' money, and last week announced that because the flap over the letter was resulting in more donations, not fewer, the NRCM was going to copy LePage's letter and send it out to all 20,000 of its donors.

     Thankfully, the Governor will be termed out in a couple of years, but for now the state of Maine is stuck with LePage, who has shown its citizens what it's like to be governed by a businessman, not a public servant.
 

Acclimating

A near miss--toppled white spruces, one day after

    It’s been more than a year since I’ve updated this blog. In early November of 2014 I heard the sound of climate change, embodied in a horrific snow and windstorm that came while the ground was soft and wet. Trees all over the island split in half or toppled from the snow. The sounds of the snapping and falling trees were ominous. Many spruce trees fell, and some apple trees did as well, including the oldest tree on the property, one that according to a pomologist was about 150 years old. 

Toppled Milding apple tree after some limbing

One that was not much younger than that (an old variety called Milding) also toppled over, but after I limbed it back severely while it was on the ground, with a neighbor and his backhoe we managed to right it and prop it back up, and last fall it bore fruit. Another apple tree, not so big or old, a Stayman Winesap that I had planted 30 or so years ago, also fell over, but this one was not so hard to push back and prop. 

Stayman Winesap on the ground after the storm

   The electric power was out for seven days, and I lost a lot of vegetables that I had frozen from the garden, for winter use. The following year, the spring, summer, and fall of 2015, was very busy for me with a great deal of travel. Before retirement, while teaching during the academic year, I could not get away nearly so often. In 2015 I counted eleven trips, some for public lectures, conference keynotes, and other presentations of my still-developing ideas concerning sound and ecology. Some of these ideas have been published (see my other blog, Sustainable Music, for links, as well as my academia.edu page, for some of the essays). But because I was so busy, I neglected a number of things. Not the vegetable garden; but this blog. 2015 also was an outstanding year for apples—the trees were heavy-laden—but I did not have time to pick and press them and make cider wine. 
     I had another excuse as well; early in the summer I wrenched my back trying to lift a window in a motel room that had been nailed shut, and instead of resting it I continued to do the physical work required around this place until I had to see a doctor, who told me in mid-August to stop everything that involved twisting or lifting  anything heavier than a bag full of garbage. After consulting the doctor, and doctor Google as well, I opted for a course of physical therapy rather than back surgery. I have been doing these exercises twice daily ever since, and although my back still hurts from exertion, I am resilient and able to recover quickly and thus able to do what needs to be done around this country house, whether wrestling with the two-wheeled tractor, wielding the chainsaw, and so forth. 
     Besides, in the spring semester of 2016 (January through early May) I emerged from retirement to go back to teaching, holding the Basler Chair at ETSU, giving a series of public lectures, hosting a symposium on music, sound, and environment, and doing a number of other things in Johnson City, Tennessee and environs. One unexpected pleasure was meeting some outstanding musicians, Roy Andrade and Corbin Hayslett, who played guitar duets and trios with me, on the fiddle tunes I’ve been adapting to slack-key guitar. With the end of the semester in early May, I was able to return to New England and experience a second spring. 

Row of onion sets after one week

     Here now for about ten days, I’ve been in the usual opening up mode, moving things in and around, cleaning inside and out, repairing winter damage, making the garden ready, working in the orchard, that sort of thing—nothing out of the ordinary. Because I was in Tennessee for so long, I could not go in time to Fedco to buy the usual onion sets and seed potatoes, so I had to settle for a different variety of potatoes (Red Norland instead of Red Gold), from a local vendor, and a different brand of stuttgarter onion sets.  I’ve grown Red Norland before; they are good early red potatoes but they don’t have the exquisite taste as Red Gold, nor do they size up as well for fall harvest. Local knowledge suggests planting the tubers when the dandelions are out in full force; I was able to follow that advice but I couldn’t plant the onions as early as I like (early May). Onions are day-sensitive; they grow best when the days are longest. Cabbage, broccoli, kohlrabi, and various greens are in now, some transplants, some seeds. Brussels sprouts should be transplanted out later, so say the garden books; but very local knowledge (my own records) indicates that they do best when transplanted out at the same time as cabbages and broccoli, so they are in the garden now. It has been fairly dry, but also rather cool. The moon will be full in a few days, and (again) local knowledge suggests that it is all right to transplant tomatoes and put in bean seeds after the last full moon in May. The soil is still a little too cool for bean seeds, though not wet (their worst enemy); tomatoes are set back by nights that are below about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, so I will be monitoring the temperature and checking my weather apps (which seldom agree exactly on high and low temperatures).
   Apple trees are blooming surprisingly well after such a good prior year; usually they are biennial, and besides, this past winter was mild, which usually means fewer blossoms. But the trees apparently did not listen, and have bloomed as if expecting another season of harsh weather. The Prima is in full bloom now, others earlier or (like the exquisite-tasting Golden Russet) later. 

Prima in early bloom