Trying to find some clarity

Jonah Lehrer became the latest best-selling author of a non-fiction book to admit that important pieces of his book are pure fiction. The author of the New York Times best-selling book “Imagine: How Creativity Works” resigned as a staff writer from the New Yorker magazine on Monday after admitting he made up quotes from Bob Dylan for his book.

The book’s publisher, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, has stopped shipment of the book and deleted e-book listings for the book, which has sold more than 200,000 copies and spent 16 weeks on the best-sellers list for nonfiction books.

In a statement released through his publisher, Lehrer said some Dylan quotes appearing in the book “did not exist.” Others were “unintentional misquotations, or represented improper combinations of previously existing quotes.”

Foremost is the tragedy that a young and talented writer torpedoed his promising career because of laziness and dishonesty. But there is also the senselessness of the whole crime.

It’s not as if Dylan is beloved for the clarity of his words in the first place.

Clash’s overtones familiar

Ball State University officials are engaged in a real estate standoff not unlike the one involving Indiana Tech and a Fort Wayne property owner. Both cases raise interesting questions about individual property rights and the common good.

Ball State wants to build a $25 million dormitory, hotel and conference center complex on prime property immediately adjacent to campus and part of a district known as The Village. Property owner Chris Hiatt, who owns a printing business and student rentals on part of the proposed location, stands in the way.

“It ain’t going to happen,” Hiatt told the Star Press in Muncie. “If they want to steal the property through condemnation, they will have a fight on their hands all the way to Judgment Day and beyond.”

The university trustees meet Friday, and condemnation proceedings are expected. Hiatt said he’s ready to challenge them and hopes the fight will serve as the “death knell for universities using eminent domain.”

Indiana Tech officials gave up on their effort to buy a 7,500-square-foot lot on East Washington Boulevard for use in a $4.3 million dorm project when the property owner held out for more money. They designed the project around the vacant lot.