OPPORTUNISTS AND             )
SELF-DESCRIBED VICTIMS       )
                             )      StellaAwards.com
    Plaintiffs,              )
                             )      pleading before the
           vs.               )
                             )      Court Of Public Opinion
ANY AVAILABLE DEEP POCKETS   )
AND THE U.S. JUSTICE SYSTEM  )      begs the court to take notice that
                             )
    Defendants.              )      We Recognize a New "Award" Category
_____________________________)

May it please the court: TSA author Randy Cassingham often gets letters from readers. Sometimes the letters disagree with him. He's fine with that. But sometimes the letters are barely comprehensible rants that help to illustrate why we have a problem in our courts. In January 2005, he got one of those; it was from Ellen in, as far as he can tell, New Jersey. She wrote:

how much money do you get from private industry such as insurers and of course you leave alot of facts out of the case typical -- you are a liar

(As you have gathered, her spelling and punctuation have been left untouched.)

Randy replied that we get no money from insurers or anyone else, except obviously for advertisers, as has long been noted on this site's "About Us" page -- and he asked exactly which "case" she referred to. She replied:

you sure are credible you are yoaur own source and then you don't even bother to keep up your lies Get the McFacts liar! I do know the facts of the McDonalds' case including the reduction of the award --which you never seem to mention and the fact that McDonald's knew before the accident the coffee was too hot you are clearly a tool and not the sha perhaps your are ignorant of the facts but I doubt it perhaps the Randys need to be awarded for the stupidest statement made in public

Ah: she's talking about the original "Stella" case. So Randy asked her if she actually has read what he had to say about that case, including the fact that Stella's multi-million-dollar award was reduced. It's been on this web site for years -- Stella's Case write-up.

Sure enough: no reply. Such people don't care about facts; they're simply terrified at being called to task for their idiotic lawsuits, and their own ideas of what's fair. There's no debate allowed: just semi-literate screaming at someone when they haven't even asked what their position might be. We refuse to play by their rules. The True Stella Awards is all about driving that public debate. You may not agree with the way we do it, but if we can raise your awareness of the issue, then we're doing our job.

So, at Ellen's suggestion, we hereby give out the first Award for Stupidest Statement Made in Public. Congratulations, Ellen! And in the tradition of such awards, it won't be named after Randy; yes, it simply must be called ...The Ellen Award.

(Some reader comments are included below.)

Subscribe for Free And get True Stella Awards case writeups as they are issued. Enter your complete Internet e-mail address (e.g., username@aol.com) here: (Optional) Please let us know how you heard of us: Before pressing the button, check here if you'd also like to subscribe to our sister publication This is True, featuring strange-but-true news items once each weekend.

Submitted by:
StellaAwards.com, In Pro Per

Reader Comments on Ellen

• In today's day and age it is shocking to still find individuals with tunnel vision. They have thought it through in their heads that they are right and everybody else is just out to get them. I have a solution: we are always in need of screamers over here in South Africa. Just send her over, and we'll put her in parliament. I'm sure she will do just fine! --Marius, Accountant, Gauteng, South Africa

• Ellen's award is aptly named. Even before reading your replies I remembered all the facts you have laid out about the original Stella case. --Mark, Engineer, Queensland, Australia

• Could I suggest that one of the criteria for this award be one you had highlighted in Ellen's own mangled missive? The abuse of our wonderful language by those who do not choose (or simply do not care enough) to use it correctly. While illiteracy has always been common, the advent of computerised bulletin boards and their like has allowed anyone with a computer to post his or her thoughts, regardless of their value or lack thereof, with a level of literacy that would have shamed me, or any of my contemporaries, when we were in our first year at secondary school (that's at age eleven in the UK). --Richard, Trainer and Writer, Surrey, UK

• Ah... The Ellen Award! The entire manufacturing segment of the U.S. economy could be turned around by the factories running 24/7 to produce these things. Hardly a day goes by when we are not subjected to similarly incoherent, stream-of-semiconsciousness grade-school prattle. Could these people actually believe that anyone could put any stock in the rationale of what they write when they don't have even the most rudimentary command of written communication? If the level of language skills is any indication of the competence of the ideas buried in this garble, then the Ellen Award will be served up more often than the Big Mac before you can say "Punctuation? What punctuation?" --Wally, Cartographer, New Jersey, USA

Navigate To: Home / Sample Issues: Current-Previous / Stella The Book / 2007 Award Winners (2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002) / Subscription Info / Change Existing Subscription / Submit Cases / Privacy Notice / The "Real" Stella / Bogus Stellas / The ABA's "Solution" / Cases We've Covered / FAQs / Contact Us / About Us / Ad Info / Media Notice

Copyright © 2002-2008 by ThisisTrue.Inc, All Rights Reserved worldwide. May not be copied, stored or redistributed without prior, written permission. "Stella Awards" is a trademark, and "This is True®" is a registered trademark, of ThisisTrue.Inc.