Rep. Weiner tweets his wienie

When Facebook tells you your password’s been compromised  … it’s probably a call to immediate action.

Anthony Weiner. BPaper photo

Brooklyn’s Rep. Anthony Weiner — recently wed but a perennial source of single-guy-on-the-prowl off-color humor — was shown on Twitter in [drumroll, please!] all his glory.

His bulging wienie, cloaked in gray briefs, appeared Friday night on his official account, available to 45,000 followers (and by extension to an indeterminable number of their friends).

The NY Post is calling it Weiner-gate.

The congressman had been warned by Facebook about a week ago that his password might have been compromised. Although he’s a proud technophile, like most users, he took no action, giving the hacker plenty of time to engineer mischief.

Weiner had been tweeting about a hockey game a few minutes before the shot went up [“followers of my lame hockey tweets recall i picked tb and nashville”]; he was monitoring his stream and quickly spiked the offending item — but not before it had been retweeted and screen-grabbed by several followers, the Post reports.

He quickly posted, “Tivo shot. FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next?” and later, “Touche Prof Moriarity. More Weiner Jokes for all my guests! #Hacked!”

The congressman’s spokesman, Dave Arnold, told the Post that the wiener wasn’t Weiner’s (although we’re not certain if Arnold used those exact words).

Once again, for members Congress and all of us plebeians, the gods of social media are not to be trifled with. Protect your passwords!

Here’s the full NY Post account.

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Who’s the Weiner? Let’s say he’s not afraid to speak his mind; he will not yield. Here’s the congressman’s classic House explosion last summer in defense of 9/11 emergency responders—

“Friday” — Coping with instant fame.

13-year-old Rebecca Black is the latest viral sensation. Her music video, “Friday,” has topped 28million. It’s also subjected her to a massive amount of online ridicule. Certainly, she’s crying all the way to the bank.

Here’s Black’s first TV interview, on Good Morning America. On Friday. Her dream? To perform with Justin Bieber — whose music she topped on last week’s iTunes sales chart.

SuperBowl commercials: Best [Chrysler’s hymn to Detroit] and Worst [Groupon’s tasteless humor]

My personal favorite: American industry, American workers, and the power of a great American city, by Chrysler—

Groupon easily wins for the worst ad. Unless you agree that saving $15 at a Tibetan restaurant in Chicago is the equal of the cultural annihilation and genocide that’s been underway in Tibet, you might even call it creepy. What will they think of next — equating the Holocaust with one of the Second Avenue Deli’s incomparable hot pastrami sandwiches? All this proves is that having a company valued at $6-billion doesn’t mean you have a dime’s worth of common sense or an ounce of sensitivity.

Twitter exploded last night with instant revilement over Groupon’s commercials. This morning, there were plenty of angry posts by bloggers and newspaper writers. Time asks: “Did they merely push the envelope, or did they cross a line?” The NY Times wondered “whether the start-up has burned through a lot of good will.” Groupon’s hometown newspaper, the Chicago Tribune, said the company “cheapened itself” when it “trivialized the oppression of the people of Tibet.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese — oppressors of Tibet — were also not happy about the spot (but, obviously, for other reasons).

In addition to the Tibet spot, Groupon prepared two other commercials:

In a bid to illustrate that it understands that the problems of Tibet, the Brazilian rainforest, and high seas whaling are indeed serious, Groupon created a web page that invites viewers to contribute money to aid these causes. But even here, Groupon is on slippery ground. Under Cuba Gooding Jr’s video about whaling, there’s a “urgent message” and a “donate” button in which viewers are urged to donate $15 to Greenpeace — and get a $15 Groupon credit in exchange: “Your essentially free donation will go to help end commercial whaling.” Greenpeace is hardly a universally admired advocate. Meanwhile, no kickbacks are offered for contributions to Tibet, the rainforest, or building schools “in some of the world’s poorest villages” (the schools video was not yet up).

The attitude conveyed by last night’s commercials might have been predictable — it’s reflected in this commercial that was prepared by Groupon when it was just getting started, in early 2009 [WARNING: the following video may not be suitable for young children] :

You’ll find all of the SuperBowl commercials through a link at YouTube.

Royals Tweet, taking engagement to the Wall

The British Royal Family, which only last week launched a Facebook page for Queen Elizabeth (titled The British Monarchy), today Tweeted news of Prince William’s engagement to Catherine Middleton.

The Royals also posted an update on Facebook (generating 4,950 “likes” and 1,262 comments in 5 hours) which links to the Prince of Wales’ website (“the official website of Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales, The Duchess of Cornwall, Prince William and Prince Harry).

On the OM front, People magazine is reporting that Kate Middleton’s family is “absolutely delighted” about the engagement. And the Washington Post phones in a report on how Royal engagements were announced in old days, before Social Media.

Charmed! … and Mazel Tov, of course.

Shakespeare, as he spoke it

Shakespeare‘s words, as few Americans have heard them, are being spoken this week at the University of Kansas, where “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” is being performed in Original Pronunciation (helpful subtitles added).

“When most people imagine how Shakespeare sounded, they probably think of Laurence Olivier’s British-accented performance in Hamlet or Marlon Brando’s crisp, trilling delivery of Mark Antony’s funeral speech in Julius Caesar,” The Atlantic reported in anticipation of last Friday night’s opening. But they’d be wrong.

UK theater professor Paul Meier says Shakespeare hewed closer to casual American speech than might have been imagined — and what better place to give this voice a stage than middle America. It’s the first time there’s been a full Original Pronunciation performance in North America.

“American audiences will hear an accent and style surprisingly like their own in its informality and strong r-colored vowels,” Meier says in the Atlantic.

Let’s listen (this clip is from a rehearsal):

“Actors innately love to do accents,” Meier says on the next video. “To be able to switch from one accent to another is just a wonderful party trick and a very important credential for an actor.”

Meier discusses the process of reconstructing Shakespeare’s original accent:

“People didn’t spell correctly until the mid-17th center. So people spelled just anyway they wished. Shakespeare spelled his own name seven different ways. And so when you got a letter from someone you could hear their accent; when we get a letter from someone, we cannot hear their accent because spelling has been regularized.”

Which leads us to the rhymes. Without the correct (original) pronunciation, words that Shakespeare clearly meant to rhyme, don’t appear to rhyme.