Foodie dramz

And in the honor of Cristina's plagiarism remark below and the general theme of this piece, we're just going to copy, verbatim, her post from MNSpeak. We're even going to link back to it twice because we're nice. You see, this is the internet, and although all bets are off, there's still room for common courtesy. Cough, Zimmern.

(via MNSpeak)

Yesterday, @cterhark tweeted his excitement over “appearing” on mspmag,com: “Hey, Zimmern called me a foodie! (And cribbed my article, and didn’t mention my name, or where I work). Cool.”

Andrew Zimmern’s “Moron Awards” post references Chuck Terhark’s Metro Mag article on the new street food ordinance. While his entire post revolves around the limitations outlined in Terhark’s report, Zimmern fails to credit both the author and the publication.

“One curious foodie attended the meeting and reported to another website,” he writes.

One curious foodie? Really? Another website? Why so damn evasive and exlusionary? Perhaps @mollypriesmeyer was correct in her reply: “@cterhark OMG. I bet it’s b/c there’s a rule about linking to competition. LAAAAME.”

Lame indeed!

It seems to me a lot of local publications used to fall prey to these silly old protectionist tendencies, but most of them have wised up by now and realized it’s entirely inappropriate in this space. What up?

Besides, I’m sorry, but does this not border on plagiarism?

Can’t we all just get along?

Sexy Similarities

As you're probably already aware, Strib arts and entertainment spinoff, Vita.mn, has run a "Hotness" contest for the past three years (though technically, the first year it was a "Bachelor/Bachelorette" contest), inviting the public to submit and vote for a plethora of easy-on-the-eyes locals. The hottest of the hot walk away with a slew of cool prizes and a cover/photo spread in the popular publication, followed by a big party to celebrate. Voting is in full effect right now and runs through January 20th.

Today, it was brought to our attention that Minneapolis/St. Paul Magazine is running a very similar contest, and as a peeved Vita.mn contributor pointed out via Facebook on Tuesday, the contest has "a similar structure, similar rules, similar party, similar prizes, and it's all happening at virtually the same time." All of which is undeniably true. While the concept of a "Hottest People" contest is not technically all that original, it's still quite an eyebrow-raiser considering the notable similarities between the two and the size and scope of our local print media spectrum (i.e., not very big).

What say you? Strange coincidence or blatant rip off?

Luckily, the Twin Cities has plenty of sexy peeps to go around, so we're not exactly complaining! While we're on the subject, check out our picks for the hottest hotties in Vita.mn's contest!

Vote for peeps in the Vita.mn contest HERE

Check out the MSP contest HERE (accepting submissions until Jan 20th)

Submitted by @letoilemagazine