A couple of months ago, I left a QFC with a bottle of wine that I had failed to pay for.

245 replies on “A Note to Our Readers”

  2. They do, however, support the fact the he’s a dumbass thinking with his dick. Hmmm, similar to a dumbass thinking about a potential wine buzz?

  3. The $9 bottle of wine is most telling. It means that the theft was justified, because you know, the bottle of wine only cost the Kroger corporation about $2 after they were done fucking over the producers. Stealing a more expensive bottle of wine would be crass, but a $2 bottle of wine? They have it coming.

  5. Weee…look at me ….I am # 158!

    Oh, shit I forgot to post some asshole comment to make me feel better about my sad little life.

  6. I’m sad this didn’t break the 200 comment barrier. I blame all the posts with the same title adjacent to it. Made it look like a glitch in RSS readers.

  7. ECB’s posts are almost always thought-provoking and I find I agree with her most of the time. Also, she is cute. This wine thing? Meh… If anything, I dig her even more as a result. I wish she’d been better able to laugh about it, because it is some minor, minor shit despite the trollage.

  8. Given Erica\’s vocal hatred of \”yuppies\”, property owners, car owners and generally anyone that makes over $30K a year, I\’m not surprised by this at all. She feels that, as a poor writer for an alt-weekly, she\’s entitled to it. After all, QFC is a corporate giant, so fuck \’em. She probably genuinely feels that she DESERVES that bottle of wine, just like she genuinely feels that she shouldn\’t have to pay parking tickets or debt.

    Erica, honey, listen up. No one forced you to live an impoverished life as a \”reporter\” for a \”newspaper\”. You made that decision yourself. If you\’re poor and unhappy, why not get down off your cross and do something about it, like get a real job making a decent salary so that you can actually pay for things like cheap bottles of wine. Then again, your persecution complex probably won\’t let you, right?

  9. @ 108: I don’t steal. I don’t encourage or endorse stealing. So I don’t have to worry about what you’d do to me if I who stole from your store. Wasn’t the point. I run a tiny, 3-person business that sets up @ conventions, & have caught people red-handed trying to walk off with a comic book/tee-shirt/action figures. Theft costs money & hurts small business badly. It’s true.

    What I was amazed by, as I alluded to in my comment about glass houses, is HOW MUCH online bloodlust this one incident has incurred. It reminds me of flame wars from the early BBS/irc days. An opinionated poster turns out to have an Achilles heel & everyone goes nuts.

    Listen, I’m not from Seattle, so I freely cop to not knowing the general dynamic discussed here, of how she’d write/has written about other public figure’s private failings. If she’s a hypocrite that is unfortunate for her.

    However, from the amount of venom being flung at this woman, you’d think she murdered a tiny fuzzy black & white puppy while screaming about hating the US of A live on camera for the morning news. Clearly she had a rough moment; she got caught; she probably wasn’t allowed to talk about it until she dealt with the legal end of things. Maybe she’s had oustanding fiscal issues she hasn’t dealt with thoroughly. Maybe she’ll talk about it in a future column. Maybe not. Right now it’d likely just be giving all these scandalized people more to freak out about.

    The Stranger’s reporting seems to me to be sometimes-serious, sometimes satire: kind of Daily-show-ish. Since that show has seen its credibility rise, the standards to which writers & hosts of that satiric nature have been held, is also gonna rise as those news outlets cover more actual news.

    Still. That’s a whole lotta hell to raise over a bottle of wine.

  10. Shoplifting looks bad on background checks, too. And nearly every employer is doing them. They figure if you steal from a store, you’re going to steal from them. Some of you people sneering that it’s “no big deal and everyone does it” might want to consider hiring Erica for her next job.

  11. Wow. My internet goes out and I miss the best shit storm of the year so far.

    Me and the wife shoplift from Ikea every time we go. We’re monsters, I know. ECB, your response was glib and sanctimonious. I’m not going to judge you though. Its bad enough that you will NEVER live this down. That sucks but you reap what you so.

    You know what sucks? That the moderators censored the accusations for…what, a week?

    Let me say that again. The staff of the Stranger censored the Slog to protect the reputation of one employee.

    So Dan….what the fuck gives?

  14. Considering that ECB is the person who knows the facts the best, and yet her report was so bare and unconvincing … it makes me wonder how jilted the rest of her work has been.
    Yes, there is a link directly between this post and her credibility on other stories.
    That said, I hope everything works out in the end for her. Seems to have her heart in the right spot.

  15. Slog/The Stranger is nothing but a bunch of naive reality-denying buttfuckers who would let black gangsters rape and kill them, because otherwise they might be accused of being “racist”.

  16. The best comment on this whole post, and perhaps what everyone should be asking:

    “A person who will steal will fudge the facts in a story.”

  18. I don’t expect all of the people who write the news, police my streets, supervise me at work or vice versa, or who are the president of my country to have lily white pasts. People are fallible. They have lapses of judgment. They tell little lies, they steal pens from work, they put sick day on the time sheet when they just don’t want to take another vacation day, they shoplift from QFC, they smoke some weed. One indiscretion does not a life choice make. I am sure ECB will NEVER shoplift again. You’ve all saved her from a life of hard crime, I’m sure.

    If you have an expectation of squeaky clean morality in your journalists, that’s your choice. But that is not where the bar is set at the Stranger/Slog. The best part is, there is an incredibly easy way for you to never have to subject yourself to ECB again. Go elsewhere. Myself, I’ll judge her by the quality of her work.

    Look, trolls, you’ve all had your say — several hundred times — now take your holier than thou attitudes about a PERSON a fallible PERSON, shove them firmly up your behind and waddle away. The moment has passed. Move on. If you want to continue your crusade, host your own blog. It’s free. May I suggest ECBsBottleofWine.blogspot.com? There, the hard work is done!

  19. @171:

    Troll: One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument

    People having a contradictory and valid opinion does not makes them Trolls. Shoplifting is at the very least illegal and to the vast majority of people immoral.

  21. ECB is a nanny-statist do-gooder sanctimonious smug smarmy scold. She should fit in with Seattle wonderfully! Commies don’t like private property of free enterprise so it is only natural that so many of the scum that live in that shithole of Seattle are defending this bitch.

  22. @174: Soooo…. why are you here? What does reading the Stranger/Slog do for you other than piss you off? Here’s a great way for you to feel a lot better about life: don’t point your browser here. The Great Slog Hijacking of 2009 is not going to change all of us left-wing, wine stealing, nanny-stateists into good republicans. So save money on blood pressure meds — go be with people who think like you do. Or form a cogent argument. I love REAL discussion that makes me think. You do not make me think. You make me laugh.

  25. Wine listings? Sorry I had to do it. Is this exclusively your new beat? Probably a good idea…you get yourself laughed out of City Hall. Tell us the details Erica and all will go away….

  26. Enough of the tools supporting you being a petty thief.

    It’s not okay, you’re not forgiven.

    I am certain that the shopkeepers will keep a better eye on you now that they know your game.

  27. Honestly, Erica should have just said what happened, that she feels awful about it and hell, even try to laugh about it, make a joke etc. It would show that she is human, screwed up, is sorry and maby show some humor about it.

    But that oportunity has long since been missed. Remember when Johnny Carson was arrested for DUI? That was the funny and classy way of handling public embarassment.

  29. 175 – I am here because I am a SADIST and I love to TORTURE people like you. Eat shit, you are an idiot for supporting this nanny-state smarmy bitch.

  30. And it is fucking hilarious that you think I am a Republican! As if only Republicans are anti-stealing!!!! No wonder Seattle is so hopelessly fucked up.

  31. And it is fucking hilarious that you think I am a Republican! As if only Republicans are anti-stealing!!!! No wonder Seattle is so hopelessly fucked up.

  32. It is hilarious you think I’m a Republican. That just shows how close-minded you Seattle shits are… as if the only people who are anti-stealing are Republicans. No wonder Seattle is so hopelessly fucked up, full of wimps and junkies.

  33. You all look really stupid in those tattoos, toothpick-leg black jeans and those douchey Dumbo-style earlobe plugs. What a bunch of conformists.

  34. @175: I know this is a useless debate, but if you’re so troubled by people who disagree with you, why don’t you “go start a blog” and then institute comment restriction to registered and approved users. Then you can assure you never have to read something you dislike or disagree with.

    I’m not saying I’m a frequent commenter, but I read most of the threads and I see your name very rarely — How are you claiming some sort of OG Slog commenter authority?

  35. @132 – Wow, you are SO WITTY. Did you come up with that one yourself?

    @139 – You’ve never taken a pen home from work? Ever?

    @152 – Gomez, you’re so cute when you’re being sanctimonius.

    @166 – Very.

    @176 – When they do, will you be out with your little stick so you can shake it at her?

    @183 – Jigae is not a troll.

  36. I think it would rock if ECB did a hard hitting story on those shoplifting diversion classes they make kids go through … she could so provide a perspective that most of us, who don’t steal shit from stores, couldn’t.

  37. ECB: Whoever it was that you pissed off so much, it seems that you have cost far more of their time and energy than this incident has cost of yours. Wrong or right, I think you’ve won.

  38. @188, taking a pen from work is the same as taking a bottle of wine from a grocery store? Ah…think you are stretching that a little bit don’t you?

    Maybe if Erica was not such a sanctimonious bitch towards people that don’t agree with her various views perhaps they would show her more understanding.

    ECB! You reap what you sow! So start reaping! Oh yeah, don’t expect “City Inside Out” to be calling you to appear on one of their panels anytime soon.

  41. We love you Erica. You’re a great reporter.

    This was a mistake, but only clueless losers would be as worked up about it as some of the commenters here seem to be.

    I promise to read TWICE as many of your stories.

  42. @191 – In other words, you don’t believe that all stealing is a sin deserving of the utmost in public self-flagellation. Perhaps you should get your shaky moral compass checked.

  43. Doing my best to bring this up to 200.

    I think being a self righteous, judgmental prig is a far greater crime than stealing a nine dollar bottle of wine from a supermarket. All of us, myself included, have at least one incident in their past, maybe illegal, maybe not, that we are not proud of. A great man once said “Let the one who is without sin cast the first stone”.

  44. People… Fellow Slog readers.
    This has been the most entertaining the Slog has been since the election.
    Thank you. It has been engaging and thrilling.

    I’m not sure I believe this was the result of some large anti-ECB conspiracy.

    I just can’t believe this was all the result of one person. Or even one person directing some cabal of trolls and sock-puppets.

    More like a horde of copy-cats.

    You know how some writers have a lot of FANS? Evidently, this young lady had a lot of the opposite. Going back and reading some of the articles posted, one can maybe see why.

    I dunno… what do you think? I only been reading for a few months.
    A mastermind pulling the strings of a bunch of troll puppets?
    Or just a feeding frenzy because it was a slow news day?

  45. Oh, hey. Another question…

    How involved was the staff, what with all that moderating and deleting stuff?

    I bet that was a pretty DIVISIVE issue around the office! Awkward moments at the coffee pot.

    You think this was an inside job? Hard to say who might have been the brains behind it all.

  48. @187 – Jigae: I’m not troubled by people who disagree with me. I’m troubled that Slog, which used to be a mostly lighthearted blog with some serious thought and fun snark thrown in, has had an influx of really hateful people. People whose total presence on Slog is trolling. All they can do is say racist things to Mudede, call ECB a bitch (before this even started) and generally act in a way counter to the culture that existed here. It’s not intelligent debate, it’s anonymous, juvenile blogsturbation.

    I don’t want to start my own blog because the writers here are far better than I, have a wider net to find interesting tidbits and I appreciate most of the regular commenters here, even if I vehemently disagree with them, because they actually put THOUGHT behind their replies. I suggested that those who wanted to continue pillorying ECB get their own blog because their insistence of making everything here about the one issue is off-topic and getting old. Did I really mean it or think they’d take me up on it? No, because if they did, they’d be shouting at the moon and no one would listen or care and that’s not what they want.

    As far as my OG Slog commenter authority, I have none. I’ve been around several few years and posted under other names — this one has caught on and I like it. I just would like the people who have no real interest in dialogue — who just want to continue kicking dead horses to accompany the corpse to the glue factory and let the rest of us be able to have on-topic, grown-up (if sarcastic) discourse.

    Oh, and Donolectic @191: No, I do not believe that ALL stealing is deserving of the utmost in public self-flagellation. My moral outrage meter doesn’t have a black/white setting. Someone stealing a bottle of wine from a store doesn’t get my panties in a bunch as much as, say, someone stealing a car. I don’t approve of what she did, but I won’t condemn her and I won’t demand the end of her career. It makes me wonder what some of the loudest protesters in this uproar have hidden in their closet that they so badly want everyone to look the other direction. It’s like the closet cases that scream so loudly about the evil gays.

    Check out this video, it’s an interesting talk about our shaky moral compasses: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/dan_a…

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