Phil Appears in the Tabloids!

In September, 2005, I was contacted by the Weekly World News—I am not making this up—asking whether they could use a couple of photos in an article about planned obsolescence in electronics.

I was initially skeptical. The Weekly World News, as you may know, is a supermarket tabloid specializing in stories about space aliens and bizarre events. They convinced me that this would be a serious article, however, so I said, "Sure, why not?"

The article appeared in the October 31st issue, along with pieces about overweight skeletons and the miracle baby who parted the waters of Lake Michigan, as well as an interview with the Headless Horseman's disembodied head.

Below you can see the front page of that issue, and the article. What a hoot!

 

True to form, WWN doctored the photo that I sent them. You can see the original photo on my About page. That photo shows the chassis from my little Emerson radio/tv, next to my left elbow. Into that photo they pasted another one from the Emerson article, showing the same TV with Martha Stewart on the screen. Oh, well—that's journalism!

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