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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 20180
[Obituary]
Date Posted:
11/6/2008
5:36:49 pm EST
Wvox Stats
Views: 3,455
RSS: 12,544
Comments: 14
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Modern Day Witch
Author: Alice Massimi Source: WSAV-TV News 3 (GA)
Title: MODERN DAY WITCH
You might think they cast spells, ride brooms through the night, and have black cats.
Yet as it turns out, much of what we know about witches is not true.
News Three's Alice Massimi sat down with a modern day witch to set the record straight.
“As I give thanks on All Hallows Eve let us prosper let the world be at piece,” chants Regina Metzger a Wiccan.
Metzger has the look of the witch we have come to know.
Black clothes, check, black hat, check, the ability to cast spells, check.
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Community Thoughts: There are 14 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| ... | Nov 8th. at 11:16:51 am EST
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
I reiterate: It's the trolls and the revisionists who think Gardner completely made it up from scratch, thus defining "fail" for us all. Don't feel bad, I believed that debunked myth myself for a bit. It would help if everyone involved were to do some actual research before shooting their mouths off (that includes illiterate reporters) .
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| Pros And Cons | Nov 8th. at 6:29:27 am EST
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Laura C. (Weston, Florida) - Email Me
Pro: It portrays Witches in a positive light.
Cons: Horrible spelling and grammar. A 6th-grader could fix this article!
- "All Hallows Eve?" That's the Christian name for the holiday. I doubt many Pagans of any sort use it, especially in ritual.
- No mention of honoring one's ancestors OR the descent of the Goddess into the underworld? Either the Witch interviewed is so "fluffy bunny" she doesn't know the Wheel of the Year, or the reporter deliberately left out major aspects of Samhain from the interview. Shame!
- Witchcraft in general may be 4000 years old, but the religion known as Wicca is only 50 years old. It saddens me when anyone, Christian, Muslim, or Pagan, is ignorant of basic facts about the history of his/her own religion. If it's important enough for you to structure your life around it, it's important enough for you to know where it came from.
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| My Two Cents | Nov 7th. at 8:18:51 pm EST
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WitchPoet (Claremont, California) - Email Me - Web
"Dear Ms. Massimi;
After reading your piece on Wicca I had a wonderful idea for a story. It seems that in this modern age of computers and video sound bites simple spelling and grammar and even basic punctuation have flown out the window along with horse carts and blacksmiths.
In just this one short article we have several egregious errors that would cause even a high school English teacher to whip out the red pen.
Let us recap:
"You might think they cast spells, ride brooms through the night, and have black cats. "
Maybe it is just me but I can't remember any rule about putting a coma before an "and".
"Yet as it turns out, much of what we know about witches is not true. "
An interjection traditionally is preceded by a comma as well as followed by one.
"“As I give thanks on All Hallows Eve let us prosper let the world be at piece,” chants Regina Metzger a Wiccan. "
More missing commas and are you saying this lady wants the world in pieces instead of at peace?
"“Wicca or Witchcraft is the religion it has been around over 4000 years,” explains Metzger. "
Pardon me but this sentence make no sense. I THINK it means that AS A religion Wicca etc. etc..
"“We don't slaughter anything animal sacrifice that is an old wives witches tale,” she says."
Getting tiresome pointing out simple punctuation errors.
"In fact Wicca is an earth based religion that celebrates the seasons by giving thanks. "
Wicca is DIRT BASED? Or did you mean to say it is Earth based as in The Earth; a proper noun rather than earth as in dirt you walk upon.
"While she may look spooky in her Witches Outfit she only wears it one day a year. "
Witches outfit? She is wearing the outfit of several witches? I do think the form you are seeking is Witch's.
You might think me petty to point this out but you make a good salary doing this schtick and certainly should have a little more respect for the intelligence of those who read your work or see your spots. Or are you happy just telling yourself in the mirror that it is ok to succeed because you are pretty and female rather than smart and good at what you do? Even a TV journalist should have a touch more respect for the English language.
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| And She Gets PAID For That Crap!!!! | Nov 7th. at 8:15:59 pm EST
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WitchPoet (Claremont, California) - Email Me - Web
I too had to write to the poor dear and give her my two cents. I wonder if she is crying her eyes out tonight or just shurgged ot all off as stupid since she does TV.
>
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| I've Said It A Couple Times Before... | Nov 7th. at 5:18:14 pm EST
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LD Wolverine (Edmonton, Alberta) - Email Me
but I still believe, and this article is more proof of it, that we need to steer away from the absolutes when we talk about our religions/systems of beliefs.
That is what attracted me to Wicca to begin with. It's lack of absolutes. One might believe that a Wiccan doesnt make animal sacrifices but I happen to know a few who will sacrificially kill a chicken for the feast.
"all hallows eve" I agree is NOT a day to give thanks for EVERYTHING. Holy cow, what a catch all huh? Could you imagine the length of that ritual? This woman needs to learn that Samhain means something different to each individual. For me, it is not the celebration of the new year. I have let that tradition go. For me it is darker, it is the day to give respect to your ancestors, a day to give thanks for their support, their knowledge and their strength. I invite them into my home, commune with them, if they so choose.
Every day rituals, meditations, quiet moments, that is the time for me to give thanks for "everything".
Sheesh.
And yes, I'll chime in with the rest of you as to this reporters complete lack of grammatikill skills...hahaha.
I wonder if they will ever start having interviews with bonafide members of our community as frequently as they do the crackpots, attention seekers, and fluffs.
Peace. (Not piece.)
Linda
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| I'm Getting A Headache | Nov 7th. at 10:42:33 am EST
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Ariel Moonshadow (Park City, Illinois) - Email Me
I read Ms. Massimi's article, and then her bio. Then I composed the following e-mail, which, while I admit it is scathing, I went ahead and sent, anyway. I simply cannot stand any more dingbat journalism grads pretending to report the news. Christian Amanpour on CNBC is a journalist. There is no comparison. Yes, I had a rant, but I won't apologize for it; I simply can't stand these sloppy language skills any more. This is what our education system produces? Does this young woman truly expect people to take her seriously, when she does reports like this? OK, rant over. I feel much better now. And, yes, I did send this to her e-mail address.
Dear Ms. Massimi --
I read your Hallowe'en piece on modern day witchcraft. The following are my comments:
A) -- You cannot spell correctly. "Your" is the possessive of you, as in "your purse, your dog, your cat". "You're" is the contraction of "you are". They may sound alike but they are spelled differently and have entirely different meanings. "Piece" is defined as "a part of something", as in your article. "Peace" is defined as "a period of calm, lack of conflict", among other things, as in "peace in the Middle East". Again, they sound alike but have completely different meanings, and in addition, they are spelled differently. I suggest that you stop depending on your spell check software to correct your mistakes. If you're too lazy to read what you wrote, then I suggest you have someone edit your work.
B) -- You have a complete lack of punctuation skills. Punctuation marks such as commas, colons, semi-colons, hyphens, asterisks, periods, parentheses, quotation marks and apostrophes were invented to give the written word some sense. No one but a speedtalker speaks without pauses, which, in the written piece with little or no correct punctuation, results in run-on sentences and gobbledygook semantics, as in your written piece. Either Ms. Metzger is a speedtalker who never pauses for breath, or you slept through all your English classes in grade school, high school and whatever other educational institution you attended. My best guess, from perusing your article, is that you bought your term papers online, which is a common and detestable practice in undergraduates these days. You don't do the work but you get the credit.
I offer the following:
You need a class in remedial English skills. You're ungrammatical and sloppy. You haven't the slightest grasp of the written English language, how to spell commonly used words or construct sentences correctly, or even how to file an interview. Did you do any research on the subject before you engaged in this rather fluffy piece of writing? The so-called pointy-crowned witch's hat is properly called a sugarloaf hat, which is based on the hat designs created and worn during the Renaissance and the Cavalier period. Ms. Metzger is seriously mistaken in saying that the shape of the crown is a "cone of energy". If you had bothered to do a little research before engaging in this venture, then you would know that the term "sugarloaf hat" derives from the hard, cone-shaped loaf of sugar that was a highly prized ingredient used for cooking in Elizabethan household kitchens. Sugar was extremely expensive, unlike today's prices; it was sold as a loaf shaped into a cone because it was raw sugar which is the dried sap of the sugarcane plant. The sugarloaf molds were cone-shaped, thus the descriptive term "sugarloaf hat". A household that could afford sugar was quite wealthy. If you've seen any paintings of the Puritans from the Cavalier period, it is quite plain that they retained the taller sugarloaf crown with the broad-brimmed hat, whereas the remainder of the population of western Europe and England adopted the flatter crown common in the more fashionable Cavalier hats. You can find illustrations of the fashions of the period for reference. Thus, until the modern use of it, the sugarloaf hat was a common piece of headgear for everyone and had nothing to do with witches at all. It might have been much more useful and appropriate to do an article regarding using the accusation of witchcraft as a tool to further the oppression of women, particularly women with knowledge of medicinal herbs, during the Middle Ages, and how women were frequently accused of witchcraft when they were cranky old things who simply didn't get along with their neighbors. This article is sloppy and misleading. My personal assessment of Ms. Metzger is that she is an attention-seeking dingbat.
Please, I beg you, for my peace of mind, refrain from doing an article or interview on Thanksgiving or any other holidays until you learn how to produce an article that is factually, grammatically and syntactically correct. Plain, basic English and research skills are all that are required of you, but since you seem to lack them, I suggest that you acquire them before you publish any more written reports of any kind. And, by the way, since broadcast journalism is a career, not a title, it does not require capitalization as shown in your biographical summary.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
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| IT"S "PEACE" | Nov 7th. at 5:00:34 am EST
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Whitewolf (Schenectady, New York) - Email Me
NOT "piece" !
GAAACK - I hate spelling errors! LOL!
Love to all
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| ... | Nov 7th. at 1:11:09 am EST
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Draken (Bronx, New York) - Email Me - Web
While not 4,000 years old, SOMETHING predated Gerald Gardner. An article on the main page ( [Web LINK] ) shows that Gardner's claims may not be as far-fetched as some of the trolls may think.
And Regina Metzger? Is she related to Disinformation Company head Richard Metzger?
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| Good Grief! | Nov 6th. at 11:01:04 pm EST
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Dana Corby (Anderson Island, Washington) - Email Me
"...as it turns out, much of what we know about witches is not true."
Much of what Regina Metzger 'knows' about witches is not true, either.
Wicca has not been around for 4,000 years.
The purpose of Samhain is not just 'to give thanks to everything.'
And I don't know anyone who wears a 'witch outfit' like that for their Samhain ritual!
... And she teaches a Wicca 101 class? (shudder.)
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| Schooling | Nov 6th. at 10:05:48 pm EST
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Kate (Athens, Georgia) - Email Me
What are they teaching in the schools these days? While this was a fluff piece and more than a little bit inane, the reporter's skills were horrible! Do they no longer teach the difference between "your/you're", "then/than", "piece/peace"? And how about comma usage? Commas are wonderful little squiggles that make a sentence make sense. You can make a sentence go on forever but if you don't pause for breath, you are just making noise!
There's no excuse for reporters not having and using language skills.
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| ... | Nov 6th. at 8:53:20 pm EST
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Blue Fox (Toronto (Etobicoke) , Ontario) - Email Me
Yeah, this is an AWESOME article, Wicca 4000 years +, this all hallows eve? I was at least expecting her to say Sam-hain, seriously you want to see a good Pagan information article, check the one below with an interview featuring Selina Fox, someone who you know, actually knows what they are talking about.
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| Furthering The Stereotype | Nov 6th. at 7:02:36 pm EST
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Earc (Nampa, Idaho) - Email Me
Did she have to wear the stereotypical pointy "witch" hat for the picture? How about wearing a color besides black?
Good thing the veil covered her face, or I'd be tempted to look for a hook nose and a wart.
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| The Devil's In The Details | Nov 6th. at 6:20:07 pm EST
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Auralia (Ligonier, Pennsylvania) - Email Me
"Let the world be at PIECE????" Oh good goddess, let's hope she's not a very powerful witch - I'd hate for THAT spell to come true!
And one more thing - Wicca has been around for 4,000 years? Me thinks not...
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