Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Proud mom orders "Summa Cum Laude" cake online. Publix censors it: Summa ... Laude.
Last edited Tue May 22, 2018, 12:16 PM - Edit history (1)
HerebyDemandHat Retweeted: https://twitter.com/Popehat
Proud mom orders ‘Summa Cum Laude’ cake online. Publix censors it: Summa … Laude.
Link to tweet
Morning Mix
Proud mom orders ‘Summa Cum Laude’ cake online. Publix censors it: Summa … Laude.
By Amber Ferguson May 22 at 5:19 AM [link:amber.ferguson@washpost.com|Email the author]
Saturday was Jacob Koscinski’s big day. His whole family, many from out of town, saw the Charleston, S.C., student graduate from his Christian-based home-school program with a 4.89 grade-point average and the coveted honor of summa cum laude.
His mother, Cara Koscinski organized a graduation party for her 18-year-old son. For the occasion, she ordered a cake online from her nearest grocery store, Publix, which lets customers build their own cakes complete with a customized inscription, which they enter into a message box marked “cake message option.” ... Carefully, she typed in the words she wanted on the cake: “Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018.” ... Publix’s online system was unhappy with the word “cum.”
In Latin, cum is the preposition “with,” as in summa cum laude, “with the highest distinction.” To the little box on the Publix website, however, the word meant something else and its strict algorithm, vigilant for naughty words, returned a message that said “profane/special characters not allowed.” Cum, which contains no special characters, was deemed profane.
....
Cake day arrived. ... Koscinski said she was so busy preparing things for the celebration, that she sent her husband and sister to the store to get some last minute items and to pick up the cake. ... When they returned, everyone gathered around the cake. When they opened the box, there it was: “Congrats Jacob! Summa — Laude Class of 2018.” ... Jacob was “absolutely humiliated,” Koscinski said to The Post. “It was unbelievable. I ordered the special graduation edition cake. I can’t believe I’m the first one to ever write “Summa Cum Laude” on a cake.
....
Amber Ferguson is the Morning Mix video editor for The Washington Post. She previously worked as the Politics video editor at HuffPost where she covered the 2016 presidential campaign. She joined The Post in 2017. Follow @Ms_AmberDawn
Proud mom orders ‘Summa Cum Laude’ cake online. Publix censors it: Summa … Laude.
By Amber Ferguson May 22 at 5:19 AM [link:amber.ferguson@washpost.com|Email the author]
Saturday was Jacob Koscinski’s big day. His whole family, many from out of town, saw the Charleston, S.C., student graduate from his Christian-based home-school program with a 4.89 grade-point average and the coveted honor of summa cum laude.
His mother, Cara Koscinski organized a graduation party for her 18-year-old son. For the occasion, she ordered a cake online from her nearest grocery store, Publix, which lets customers build their own cakes complete with a customized inscription, which they enter into a message box marked “cake message option.” ... Carefully, she typed in the words she wanted on the cake: “Congrats Jacob! Summa Cum Laude class of 2018.” ... Publix’s online system was unhappy with the word “cum.”
In Latin, cum is the preposition “with,” as in summa cum laude, “with the highest distinction.” To the little box on the Publix website, however, the word meant something else and its strict algorithm, vigilant for naughty words, returned a message that said “profane/special characters not allowed.” Cum, which contains no special characters, was deemed profane.
....
Cake day arrived. ... Koscinski said she was so busy preparing things for the celebration, that she sent her husband and sister to the store to get some last minute items and to pick up the cake. ... When they returned, everyone gathered around the cake. When they opened the box, there it was: “Congrats Jacob! Summa — Laude Class of 2018.” ... Jacob was “absolutely humiliated,” Koscinski said to The Post. “It was unbelievable. I ordered the special graduation edition cake. I can’t believe I’m the first one to ever write “Summa Cum Laude” on a cake.
....
Amber Ferguson is the Morning Mix video editor for The Washington Post. She previously worked as the Politics video editor at HuffPost where she covered the 2016 presidential campaign. She joined The Post in 2017. Follow @Ms_AmberDawn
As someone noted in the comments at the WaPo, I'm not sure how someone can be graduated from a "Christian-based home-school program" and be considered "summa cum laude." Who makes that decision?
15 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
perfect word choice
