Here is the empty pie plate that’s currently sitting in our office kitchen, and will probably be in the exact same place two years from now. Why? Because no one currently employed by the Mercury knows how to wash a dish. That’s why we need you Blogtownies to decide: WHO SHOULD WASH THIS PIE PLATE?

pieplate.jpg

This is the scenario: Sarah Mirk brought in the plate this morning which contained two slices of delicious cherry pie. (It’s unknown what became of the other six slices—it’s probably in the belly of her heroin-addict boyfriend.) By 10:30 am, both slices were gone, and the plate has since remained untouched. SO! Bearing in mind that Sarah Mirk has never washed a single kitchen utensil in her entire life…

Who is ethically responsible for washing this pie plate?

As always, the results of all Blogtown polls are legally binding.

Bang bang, choo-choo train, let me see you shake that thang. Wm. Steven Humphrey is the editor-in-chief of the Portland Mercury and has held the job since 2000. (So don’t get any funny ideas.)

21 replies on “Who Should Wash This Pie Plate?!? (A Blogtown “Ethics in Modern Society” Poll)”

  2. Whoever took the last piece should’ve left at least a three-gram bit of pie, to create the fiction that they “weren’t taking all of it.” Either that or they should’ve “put it to soak.” In any case, they suck.

  5. I though Mirk was more high class than heroin-addicts and only dated cheese-addicts.

    (Also option three *would* be funny if had anyone darker than mayonnaise on staff; otherwise, WSH is just race baiting.)

  6. Bring another pie-and-knife tomorrow, then have a pie knife and pie-platter-shield dueling tournament. The winner of the tournament gets to decide who must wash both pie plates… unless all of the losers have been killed by pie knives.

  10. The responsibility of washing the dishes should always go to the woman with the smallest hands. After all, god made them that way so they can do jobs like cleaning the dried milk rings from the bottom of a glass.

  15. As the media advisor for Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen and as an African American Portland resident, I find myself saddened, offended and stunned by your reference to “Leave it to Corinna, your black maid” as one of the selections.

    First, I’m saddened because I believe an editor of a media organization shouldn’t stoop to racist stereotypes in any form as a gimmick to pull in readers. I deal with the media every day in my job. And although I spent 22 years at The Oregonian as a reporter and editor before coming to work for the county, I always treat the alternative and neighborhood newspapers as seriously because these papers cover local issues vigorously and deserve to be treated respectfully. But the use of this stereotype has me second guessing how I might deal with the Mercury, which I consider an important part of the media.

    Second, I’m offended because putting “black maid” in the poll is racist. If you take “black” out, the point and the humor of your blog poll don’t change. To leave it in speaks volumes, in my view, of the writer and the organization. Your intent may be to be Colbert-like. But your impact on me is to perpetuate a racist stereotype. The impact on your readers is to say it’s OK to perpetuate a racist stereotype because you think it’s funny. Funny at whose expense?

    Finally, I’m stunned that in “progressive” Portland, of the hundreds of people who voted and the more than a dozen who left comments that nobody else found that phrase offensive. How sad.

    David Austin

  17. How tiresome it is to see someone without a modicum of wit use racism, genderism and bigotry and pretend it is ‘humor’. I hope it is ‘just’ ignorance and not the hatefulness it appears to be.

  18. The Mercury’s use of harmful, or at the very least insulting, stereotypes to get a laugh is consistent and has a long history. That does not excuse it but fully explains why I stopped worrying about reading it a long time ago.

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