JUST WHAT IS “monkey fishing”?
If you read the Microsoft online magazine Slate, you’ve already been treated to the debate over columnist Jay Forman’s account of Florida Keys fishermen “hooking” island-bound monkeys with apple-baited fishing lines. Famous Seattle transplant and Slate editor Michael Kinsley stood up to the drumbeat of critics who claimed the piece was fictional—that is, until New York Times writer Alex Kuczynski debunked the story earlier this week. Kuczynski revealed that a friend of writer Forman who accompanied him on the fishing trip divulged that colorful details included in the final account never happened (and that a bit of drinking was going on).
That was enough for Kinsley, who promptly apologized to readers for Forman’s factual lapses (including two not-quite-accurate statements in other pieces written for Slate). And, with luck, your travel agent just might refund the deposit you put down on that monkey-fishing junket.
James Bush
