Justina Hecker's artwork submission to Crayola's Dream-Makers exhibition turned into a nightmare for the 9-year-old and her family.
Earlier this month the Heckers received a letter saying the third-grader's picture was chosen from thousands of entries to be on display at the State Theatre Center for the Arts.
The Wisconsin family immediately hopped on the Internet and started planning for a trip to Easton this summer.
A few days later Justina's mom, Laura Hecker, got a call from Crayola manufacturer Binney & Smith letting her know her daughter was one of 91 students erroneously sent letters of congratulations.
In fact, Justina's artwork was not recognized among thousands of entries.
"I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This just couldn't be. This is a child's life," the mother said in a phone interview Tuesday. "You just shattered her life."
Yes, it sucks that they made an error and a little girl suffered some disappointment as a result. But they apologized and even sent some freebies, so the thing to do would be to move on. And perhaps not dramatize the situation. Does this child's entire life really revolve around Crayola drawing contests?
Binney & Smith employees called students and teachers in Wisconsin, Missouri and Iowa who were sent the erroneous letters. They also received apology letters and Crayola gifts, Gabrielle said.
"The majority of them were understanding. We regret that this one family was disappointed," she said.
But the Heckers, who live in a rural town west of Madison, Wis., are disenchanted with Crayola.
Justina and her 3-year-old sister, Jacinda, set up a gallery of their own in their parents' basement. Justina made a sign, saying, "Our Art is Terrific," her mom said.
"Doesn't someone proofread before they mail this out? Don't these people have children?" Laura Hecker said.
Laura Hecker recalled her husband, David, breaking the news to Justina, as she sat in an oversized recliner in their home.
"It just about makes me bawl now, thinking about it," she said, adding that her daughter is cynical about entering other drawing competitions.
"Now she's got the attitude that it's all just a lie."
Holy shit, with a mother like this, there is no way in hell that this will be this girl's first brush with disappointment at not being among the best. An error in a Crayola drawing contest is enough to make a grown woman "bawl"? And if her daughter is cynical about entering bullshit drawing competitions, I have to ask "So?"
2:50 PM
A West Texas student who mixed a chemical cocktail that landed a teenager in the hospital will face a felony charge if the student who drank it chooses to press charges, authorities said today.
Huh?
Ector County Schools Police Chief Henry Jackson said the Odessa High School student, who drank the chemical on a dare, is considering pressing an aggravated assault charge. That charge is a second-degree felony.
"The person who mixed it knew it was bad," Jackson said in a story in Tuesday's online edition of the Odessa American. "When you do something, and it causes serious bodily injury or death, that makes it aggravated."
The person who DRANK it knew it was bad. That's why he drank it on a dare. Certainly the amateur mixologist should get in a little trouble at school for messing with the chemicals, as they aren't supposed to do that. But to charge this kid with any crime is going a bit far. It's not like he said "here's a perfectly safe, untainted cola beverage. Have a drink." If an art student makes a heavy piece of pottery and another student takes it upon himself to break it over his own head, is the student who made the vase responsible for this?
This "victim" (and Darwin Award candidate) has all kinds of nerve. Hopefully someone will dare him to jump off something tall or drink some other unknown liquids soon. It would be $2 well-spent.
9:26 AM
"Does the latte business somehow thwart the traditional laws of supply and demand?"
Last time I read about something violating supply & demand was sometime around 1999 and the supposed violators were internet companies.
But now that I've thrown that out, what is more likely at work here is that supply & demand is alive and well, and that having a coffee shop of some sort every 10 feet, with attendent welcoming sights and smells, is increasing people's appetite for coffee, or rather, the demand for coffee. I'm no economist, and I'm not that damn old (geologically speaking), but I know enough and have been around long enough to know that whenever someone says that something violates laws of supply and demand, that that person is just wrong. Sure, there are situations in which supply & demand aren't allowed to work as they should, because some entity is messing with one side or the other, but s&d itself is simply inviolable. Millions of people have been slaughtered because of the refusal of various "enlightened" individuals to believe this incontrovertible fact. Pointing to internet stocks or coffee shops as "proof" that s&d has ceased to apply is the same as pointing to a flying airplane as proof that gravity no longer exists. Sure, it appears that way at first glance, but when you think about it, it's really the huge engines burning massive amounts of fuel, wings, etc. that are working to keep that plane in the air, not the disappearance of the law of gravity.
