# Does TSD have a Lillian Virginia Mountweazel? **URL:** \ **Category:** About This Message Board\ **Created:** [October 18, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759 "2005-10-18T16:13:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/1 "2005-10-18T16:13:56Z")
For those of you who don’t know, Lillian can be found on page 1,850 of the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia. What the entry says is not important. What is important is that she doesn’t exist. She is put in to protect the encyclopedia’s copyright. If someone were to copy the entry then it would be clear that they are stealing it. I picked Lillian because I am getting all my information from the August 29, 2005 edition of the New Yorker. For your amusement, in the same article it says that the New Oxford American Dictionary contains the made-up word “esquivalience”, which means the willful avoidance of one’s offical responsibilities. The word has been previously spotted on [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com). I know that TSD has had trouble with other websites stealling Cecil’s columns and passsing the Great One’s knowledge as their own. If this website does not already have a fake Cecil column, it can be a potential solution to copyright theft. The SDMB would still have to be notified of the fake column of course, that is, if they are unable to spot it for themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/2 "2005-10-18T16:45:20Z")
> [@Lakai](#): > > What the entry says is not important. My very first reaction was, “Huh. Cool. I wonder what the entry says.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/3 "2005-10-18T16:47:43Z")
Maybe I’m slow today, but I don’t quite see the point. The vast majority of the people who steal Cecil’s Columns and the Staff Reports don’t even bother to hide their effort, they just copy and paste the entire thing verbatim. They’re incredibly easy to find with Google. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/4 "2005-10-18T17:21:08Z")
Nor do they copy the site entirely, which would be necessary to find such a thing. Everybody stealing Cecil articles I’ve run across ([which is an extensive list](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=6626404&postcount=11)) merely swipes a few stories of special interest to themself. Of local interest, perhaps, is that Cecil himself has written of such so-called “copyright traps.” [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_165.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_165.html) > [@Cecil Adams](#): > > Every time I publish a book, a few subverters of public order write in to point out what they claim are mistakes. Mistakes, my arse. Copyright traps. Heh. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/5 "2005-10-18T17:29:04Z")
So, what does the entry say? ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/6 "2005-10-18T18:31:33Z")
From [http://www.towse.com/blogger/2005/08/lillian-virginia-mountweazel.htm](http://www.towse.com/blogger/2005/08/lillian-virginia-mountweazel.htm) > [@](#): > > Turn to page 1,850 of the 1975 edition of the New Columbia Encyclopedia and you’ll find an entry for Lillian Virginia Mountweazel, a fountain designer turned photographer who was celebrated for a collection of photographs of rural American mailboxes titled “Flags Up!” Mountweazel, the encyclopedia indicates, was born in Bangs, Ohio, in 1942, only to die “at 31 in an explosion while on assignment for Combustibles magazine.” What a way to go. Poor girl. ---
**Author:** ![askeptic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eb9ed0/32.png) [@askeptic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/askeptic)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/7 "2005-10-18T18:43:22Z")
> [@ultrafilter](#): > > From [http://www.towse.com/blogger/2005/08/lillian-virginia-mountweazel.htm:](http://www.towse.com/blogger/2005/08/lillian-virginia-mountweazel.htm:) > > What a way to go. Poor girl. Linky no worky… ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-tsd-have-a-lillian-virginia-mountweazel/326759/8 "2005-10-18T19:10:50Z")
It doesn’t like the : on the end.