Monday, November 20, 2006

Finding Vaginia in the Arlington Public Schools

This afternoon, a fiend and cow-orker sent me a link: www.washlee.arlington.k12.va.us

It's the home page of Washington Lee High School, in Arlington. No big deal, right?

Washington Lee High School Web Page screenshot

Okay, so it's Sandra Bullock's alma mater. I figured I was missing something, so I took a closer look:

Closeup of Washington Lee High School Web Page
Oh my.

Ah, there it is.

Still don't see it? Here it is in red:

Closeup of Washington Lee High School Web Page
A nice big, red...

For the colorblind, the bottom of the crest says arlington vaginia

It's sophomoric. Stupid. And very, very funny.

According to my friend, a buddy of his had worked at the school, was checking out the site, and happened to catch the vaginia.

I think I was looking at the page as they were fixing it, since the vaginia graphic wasn't showing up until you rolled over it.

It's since been fixed, though you can see the lettering is a bit off right now. It's squashed. Tight, even:

Crest fixed
There's nothing worse than a sloppy Virginia.

However, I don't think they've gotten around to fixing the footer image yet:

Washington Lee High School Footer

The most recent Google cached version of the page is from Nov. 16, and says "The NEW and IMPROVED Washington-Lee website is ready for its debut," so you figure (or hope, for their sake) that it just went live today.

As to how it got published? Three possibilities:

  1. Deliberate Defacement by an outside hacker/cracker or someone with inside access.

  2. Accidental Defacement, most likely a test or joke image inadvertently published to production.

  3. Complete Illiteracy: Someone who really doesn't know how to spell "Virginia." I'm envisioning somone with a wicked Bahhstahn accent trying to spell it phonetically.

Anyway, like I said, stupid, sophomoric, and funny.

Naturally, you only have my word that this isn't a Photoshop job, but it's a heck of a long and pointless way to go for such a cheap laugh. Those of you who know me know I'm far too lazy for that.

No comments: