Lawrence Sesquicentennial May 30 – September 19th

[mckitterick]

The Lawrence Sesquicentennial celebration is upon us:


http://www.lawrence150.org/

Now for some literary criticism: "We invite you to participate in as many ways as you can think of while Lawrence celebrates 150 years of excellence."

"Excellence"? Oh for gawd's sake, what's with this "excellence" business? Couldn't they get a non-business person to write their text? Sheesh.

Chris

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_mac_/]

".. while Lawrence celebrates 150 years of mediocracy." ...and its wonderous ability to not burn completely to the ground...

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Heh. Silly. I mean something more in line with what the town is all about. You know, fun, interesting, learned, drunken, etc.

Chris

[stuology.livejournal.com]

I would have just said "...while Lawrence celebrates 150 years."

Let the celebrations speak the rest.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Perfect!

Chris

[next-bold-move.livejournal.com]

Quirky...

[intrepid.livejournal.com]

They have to use Excellence. They want to sound just like all the other similar celebrations... Don't want to be different or original, 'cause that's weird.... :)

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

See, that's the odd bit! Lawrence is weird and different -- that's its appeal, especially in Kansas!

Chris

PS: Thanks for the invite!

[bobhowe.livejournal.com]

Lawrence celebrates 150 years of mindless boosterism.
Lawrence celebrates 150 years of chamber of commerce vacuity.
Lawrence celebrates 150 years of sinecures for mediocre admen.
Lawrence celebrates 150 years of tired clichés.

You're right, Noam Chimpsky: it's teeth-grittingly bad writing, by the uninspired for the uninformed.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Ja. See, what's cool about Lawrence is:

. It was founded by abolitionists
. It was attacked multiple times by slavers but kept up the good fight
. It has probably the only sports team named after actual, local, historical heroes (Jayhawks)
. It's a progressive oasis in a desert of backward-looking fanaticism (and always has been)
. It's young, fun, and full of great restaurants and beer-dealers
. etc.

Chris

[bobhowe.livejournal.com]

That's a lot of cool stuff. I ran this by the Squatoline Committee (bad_bad_zoot and friendly_flea, chaired by cow_of_squatola), and it produced the following slogan:

Lawrence, Not Afraid To Be Unpopular

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

That's it! I'll submit it to the citizen's promotion group.

Chris