Theft, Or Cutting Corners?

Two signs that MIKE BARNICLE, Boston Globe columnist, has yet to move into the '90s: 1) after getting caught allegedly lifting jokes from George Carlin, he failed to be at all contrite; 2) he lifted jokes from George Carlin. Carlin? What year is this? That's like stealing lyrics from Pete Seeger.

Barnicle, a beloved, tough-guy metro columnist for the past 25 years, was suspended by the paper after a reader noticed that many of the gags in an Aug. 2 column seemed to be thinly disguised versions of material in Carlin's best-selling 1997 book, Brain Droppings. Barnicle claimed he'd never read...

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