Mush from the Wimp
Template:Short description "Mush from the Wimp" was a joke headline at the top of an editorial in The Boston Globe that accidentally passed through to publication in 1980.
HeadlineEdit
On March 15, 1980, The Boston Globe ran an editorial that began:
The editorial was not particularly critical of Carter, but was given the headline "Mush from the Wimp".<ref name=levenson/> The headline was corrected to read "All must share the burden" during the print run, but only after 161,000 copies had already gone to circulation.<ref name="nyt-scharfenberg">Template:Cite news</ref>
AftermathEdit
The phrase had been created by Globe editorial writer Kirk Scharfenberg; in 1982, he wrote an op-ed piece discussing it.<ref name="globe-now"/> Scharfenberg had felt that Carter's speech was "wishy-washy" and it left him "not much impressed."<ref name=levenson>Template:Cite news</ref> "I meant it as an in-house joke and thought it would be removed before publication," he explained. "It appeared in 161,000 copies of the Globe the next day."<ref name="nyt-scharfenberg"/> Scharfenberg also noted the use of "wimp" as a popular political insult afterwards.<ref name="globe-now">Template:Cite news</ref> He remained with the Globe until his death in 1992 from cancer at age 48.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A month after the headline was published, Theo Lippman Jr. of The Baltimore Sun declared "Mush from the Wimp" as being "on its way to becoming one of the most famous headlines of our time."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He placed it behind "Wall St. Lays an Egg" (Variety, 1929) and ahead of "Ford to City: Drop Dead" (New York Daily News, 1975).<ref name="globe-now"/>
The phrase became well known enough that in 1995, a Globe editorial chastising the Iditarod Race for caving in to pressure from animal rights activists was titled "More wimps from the mush."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The New York Post used "Mush from the wimp", with credit to Scharfenberg, as the title of an opinion column published on June 20, 2013, criticizing President Barack Obama following a speech in Berlin.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>