Mush from the Wimp

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"Mush from the Wimp" was a joke headline at the top of an editorial in The Boston Globe that accidentally passed through to publication in 1980.

Contents

Headline

On March 15, 1980, The Boston Globe ran an editorial that began:

Certainly it is in the self-interest of all Americans to impose upon themselves the kind of economic self-discipline that President Carter urged repeatedly yesterday in his sober speech to the nation. As the President said, inflation, now running at record rates, is a cruel tax, one that falls most harshly upon those least able to bear the burden. [1]

The editorial was not particularly critical of Carter, but was given the headline "Mush from the Wimp". [2] The headline was corrected to read "All must share the burden" during the print run, but only after 161,000 copies had already gone to circulation. [3]

Aftermath

The phrase had been created by Globe editorial writer Kirk Scharfenberg; in 1982, he wrote an op-ed piece discussing it. [4] Scharfenberg had felt that Carter's speech was "wishy-washy" and it left him "not much impressed." [2] "I meant it as an in-house joke and thought it would be removed before publication," he explained. "It appeared in 161,000 copies of the Globe the next day." [3] Scharfenberg also noted the use of "wimp" as a popular political insult afterwards. [4] He remained with the Globe until his death in 1992 from cancer at age 48. [5]

A month after the headline was published, Theo Lippman Jr. of The Baltimore Sun declared "Mush from the Wimp" as being "on its way to becoming one of the most famous headlines of our time." [6] He placed it behind "Wall St. Lays an Egg" ( Variety , 1929) and ahead of "Ford to City: Drop Dead" (New York Daily News, 1975). [4]

The phrase became well known enough that in 1995, a Globe editorial chastising the Iditarod Race for caving in to pressure from animal rights activists was titled "More wimps from the mush." [7]

The New York Post used "Mush from the wimp", with credit to Scharfenberg, as the title of an opinion column published on June 20, 2013, criticizing President Barack Obama following a speech in Berlin. [8]

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References

  1. ↑ "All must share the burden". The Boston Globe . March 15, 1980. p. 14. Retrieved March 6, 2021– via newspapers.com.
  2. 1 2 Levenson, Eric (August 25, 2015). "How an accidental Boston Globe headline defined Jimmy Carter's legacy". Boston.com . Retrieved March 6, 2021.
  3. 1 2 "Kirk Scharfenberg, 48; Editor on Boston Globe". The New York Times . 1992-08-29.
  4. 1 2 3 Scharfenberg, Kirk (November 6, 1982). "Now it can be told ... the story behind Campaign '82's favorite insult". The Boston Globe . p. 11. Retrieved March 6, 2021– via newspapers.com.
  5. ↑ Mooney, Brian C. (July 28, 1992). "Kirk Scharfenberg, the Globe's compassionate voice, is dead at 48". The Boston Globe . p. 21. Retrieved March 6, 2021– via newspapers.com.
  6. ↑ Lippman Jr., Theo (April 21, 1980). "Mush from the Wimp". The Baltimore Sun . p. 12. Retrieved March 6, 2021– via newspapers.com.
  7. ↑ "More wimps from the mush". The Boston Globe . March 10, 1995. p. 22. Retrieved March 6, 2021– via newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Mush from the wimp". New York Post . June 20, 2013. Retrieved March 6, 2021.
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