{"id":1886,"date":"2008-02-05T18:57:14","date_gmt":"2008-02-05T23:57:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/more-like-f-mail\/"},"modified":"2008-02-06T16:11:16","modified_gmt":"2008-02-06T21:11:16","slug":"more-like-f-mail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/more-like-f-mail","title":{"rendered":"More like “F”-mail"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the 1990s when Tom Spurgeon<\/a> was editing The Comics Journal<\/a>, he was kind enough to publish some of my short comics reviews. Since the irascible publisher of the magazine was named Gary “a man should be judged by the quality of his enemies” Groth<\/a>, some people thought my byline was actually his nom de plume. This led me to write an About the Contributors note reading, “Gil Roth is not a clever pseudonym for Gary Groth. In fact, he’s not very clever at all.”<\/p>\n

More recently, and for the same reason, I was convinced that the “comic” strip Gil Thorp<\/a> is a bizarre prank targeting me, and only me. (Okay, and him<\/a> and him<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

But none of these odd connections can top the incredible screwup that took place last week, when a drug company’s outside law-firm accidentally e-mailed secret documents about a government negotiation . . . to a pharma-writer at the New York Times<\/em>. Portfolio, take it away!<\/a><\/p>\n

When the New York Times<\/em> broke the story last week that Eli Lilly & Co. was in confidential settlement talks with the government, angry calls flew behind the scenes as the drug giant’s executives accused federal officials of leaking the information.<\/p>\n

As the company’s lawyers began turning over rocks closer to home, however, they discovered what could be called A Nightmare on Email Street<\/em>, a pharmaceutical consultant told Portfolio.com. One of its outside lawyers at Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton had mistakenly emailed confidential information on the talks to Times<\/em> reporter Alex<\/em> Berenson instead of Bradford<\/em> Berenson, her co-counsel at Sidley Austin. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Proving that<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the auto-complete function was obviously designed by Satan (or Microsoft)<\/li>\n
  2. a man should be judged by the quality of his mistaken identity<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    (hat tip to Pharmalot<\/a> and S&A<\/a>)<\/p>\n

    (UPDATE: Dammit! I knew this was too good to be true!<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Back in the 1990s when Tom Spurgeon was editing The Comics Journal, he was kind enough to publish some of my short comics reviews. Since the irascible publisher of the magazine was named Gary “a man should be judged by the quality of his enemies” Groth, some people thought my byline was actually his nom … <\/p>\n

    Continue reading “More like “F”-mail”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,26,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-comics","category-pharmaceuticals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-uq","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9816,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-180-leslie-stein","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":0},"title":"Episode 180 – Leslie Stein","author":"Gil","date":"August 8, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show #180: Leslie Stein \"I'm able to be what people want me to be when I'm behind the bar or playing music, but I'm not a performer by nature, so it's not an easy transition. With comics, the joy I feel when I'm drawing comes through.\" Cartoonist Leslie\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"28114150503_119e049c2d_z","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/28114150503_119e049c2d_z-440x330.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10407,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-224-graham-chaffee","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":1},"title":"Episode 224 – Graham Chaffee","author":"Gil","date":"June 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 224: Graham Chaffee \"What I've learned about storytelling is that you don't know what the story's about until you're halfway through it. You might have your plot, but plot's just the vehicle.\" Master tattooist and comics artist Graham Chaffee joins the show to talk about his new\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/instachaff-620x620.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/instachaff-620x620.jpeg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/instachaff-620x620.jpeg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10161,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-202-karen-green","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":2},"title":"Episode 202 – Karen Green","author":"Gil","date":"January 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 202: Karen Green \"My plan is to make this a research destination for comics studies, especially as they relate to comics in New York City.\" Karen Green, Curator of the Comics and Cartoons collection at Columbia University, joins the show to talk about her secret origin! How\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kgfullres.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kgfullres.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kgfullres.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kgfullres.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/kgfullres.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15332,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-492-howard-chaykin","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":3},"title":"Episode 492 – Howard Chaykin","author":"Gil","date":"June 28, 2022","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 492: Howard Chaykin \"I've always had an absolute obsession for the demimonde of sleaze, and New York had particular kind of demimonde-itude when I was a kid.\" Legendary comics creator Howard Chaykin rejoins the show for a WIDE-ranging talk to celebrate the conclusion of his Time2 opus,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/chaykin2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C517&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/chaykin2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C517&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/chaykin2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C517&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/chaykin2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C517&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/chaykin2022comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C517&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":7844,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-hello-columbus","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":4},"title":"Podcast: Hello, Columbus","author":"Gil","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories \u2013 season 4 episode 15 - Hello, Columbus \"I'm a person who works in comics and knows a lot about comics, and I'm teaching people who know nothing about comics to talk to other people who know nothing about comics, about comics.\" Caitiln McGurk, fresh off of curating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Classic Comics Criticism"","block_context":{"text":"Classic Comics Criticism","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature\/classic-comics-criticism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002SQJLA4","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17468,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-634-dan-nadel","url_meta":{"origin":1886,"position":5},"title":"Episode 634 – Dan Nadel","author":"Gil","date":"April 15, 2025","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 634: Dan Nadel \"You could tell a story about the history of comics, and drawing, and even music through Crumb's life.\" Author and curator Dan Nadel joins the show to celebrate the publication of his amazing new biography, CRUMB: A Cartoonist's Life (Scribner). We get into Robert\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nadel2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nadel2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nadel2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nadel2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/nadel2025comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1886\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}