I just read a fascinating story in the New York Press online about the strange case of Brad Vice. The author of the article, Robert Clark Young, highlights a few choice details about how at least two significant short stories attributed to Mr. Vice contain passages that were stolen ('borrowed') from other works. These two stories won Mr. Vice awards and accolades, and were published in markets I continue to try to break into.

Perhaps I should reword that -- ending a sentence with a preposition is one thing, but should I say I want to "break into" a market when theft (of intellectual property, granted) is the issue being discussed?

Never mind. The point is, Brad Vice has been caught red-handed stealing other people's work and calling it his own. He is a professor and, the evidence suggests, a plagiarist. His transgressions have embarrassed several institutions now that the story has come to light. His literary theft is so significant that his university employer has even (gasp) "formed a committee to investigate him on plagiarism charges." (Those are Robert Clark Young's words, not mine. I'm quoting that phrase and attributing it, accordingly, under the rules of fair use.)

I have a suggestion for Mr. Vice. Should your position at Mississippi State University become at risk, you may wish to consider applying to join the faculty at University of Pennsylvania. As I learned during my time there in grad school, plagiarism not only won't get you fired from UPenn, but you may not even have to face a cut in pay. And if you think I've paid particular attention to Penn's plagiarism problems because the victim of one of Penn's more interesting cases while I was a student there was named Allen Roussel (such a wonderful accident of homonym!), you'd be right.