APR Tuesday Tip: 5 Elements of Libel

Slander, defamation and libel are all terms we here people throw around a lot. If you are studying for the APR exam, or if you are a recent survivor of a media law course, you probably find yourself thinking "I do not think that word means what you think that word means."

Way back at the beginning of my little APR flash card experiment, I covered the definitions for defamation, slander and libel. Here's a belated follow up.

Front: 5 Elements of Libel

Back:
1. Defamation
2. Identification
3. Communication (Publication/Broadcast)
4. Fault (malice or negligence)
5. Damage (in absence of fault, provable damage or injury)

Getting Lucky in Budapest

As I mentioned in my first Budapest post, we arrived in Hungary in the evening, but our luggage unfortunately did not. By the following afternoon, I had resigned myself to living out of the backpack for the week. Viva la adventure!

Our trip was mostly, self-led sight seeing, but I did book at least one guided tour in each city. In Budapest we took the "Hammer and Sickle Communism Tour." It was great. There was only one other couple with us, so it was basically a private tour.

Our guide showed us all over Castle Hill, on the Buda side of the river. And, as the name implies, the tour focused on the history of Communism in Hungary. Since we had such a small group we were able to ask really detailed questions about anything and everything Hungarian. We even ended up having a surprisingly candid talk about the short-comings of the US education system.

For me, one of the highlights of the tour, was getting an up close look at this Budapest landmark.

Equestrian statues are very popular in Budapest, but this one is particularly popular, especially with the students of the nearby university. Notice a particularly shiny spot on that horse? 

Legend has it, if you rub the horse's balls, you'll have good luck. Our guide offered any of us the chance to try it. I figured we'd all take turns, but it soon became apparent that I was the only taker. 

It was much higher than I initially thought, but I scrambled up there and gave that statue a good grope. Our little group got a nice kick out of it, especially John. But you know what? Our luggage arrived that night.

Hello, Budapest

We landed in Budapest at 6 pm. We didn't want to waste a minute, so as soon as we were settled (easy with no luggage!) we hit the streets.

On our first evening out we

• Bought passes and figured out the Metro
• Found a restaurant with nothing but an address and a map (we’re claiming victory here, but Google Maps failed us, as it often does abroad, and the addresses and street names are bizarro)
• Saw Heroes Square, a landmark monument, lit up at night
• Stumbled across a live concert where they release hundreds of balloons filled with glow lights
• Talked to actual Hungarians while waiting for the train
• And, most importantly, found our way back to the hotel in the dark.

Adventures in Travel

One of the secrets to a good trip is to keep doing things you can well and just try to not care too much about anything else.

One thing I've gotten pretty good at is packing. In fact this time, I hardly planned at all. I just pulled out the list I use every time and tossed everything in our bags. We’re hitting Eastern Europe with one suitcase, one carryon, a backpack and a small purse. At least we thought we were.

Two things you can’t control: flight delays and lost luggage. Our original flight out of Dallas was delayed two hours due to lightening. We landed at Heathrow at the exact time we should have boarding our connection to Budapest, but we were saved by the delay. Our connection was an hour late, which put us right on time.

We landed in Budapest right on time. Except our luggage, that one suitcase didn't  It was last seen in Heathrow according to the database. So we filed a report and celebrated how little we had to carry to the taxi stand.

This is when I surprised even myself with my packing savvy. Because even though we had next to nothing in the backpack and purse, we ended up in Budapest with

• 8 pairs of socks and underwear each (recycling clothes everyday doesn't sound so bad as long as you have clean socks and drawers)
• Our camera, laptop, kindles (loaded with guide books), chargers and plug adapters
• 2 pairs of clothes each (if you count our travel clothes)
• All our prescriptions and a stock pile of Tylenol and ibuprofen
• Hats and sunscreen
• Toothbrushes and toothpaste
• Maps, itineraries, and tickets
• And of course, the only two things we really need: passports and credit cards. 

Holy smokes, we’re traveling across Eastern Europe with nothing but the clothes on our backs. And it’s fine. We have until Tuesday morning for the no show luggage to make it to the hotel, or I suspect they will reroute it to our home. Worst case scenario we need to buy deodorant (we’re very European today) and a brush, maybe a couple spare tee shirts. 

Textbooks vs. Zombies, a Public Service Announcement

My team at the OSU Library has been busy at work creating video content for a new initiative at the University. They are churning out some great stuff, and I am super proud. Here's the latest PSA, Textbooks vs. Zombies.

Watch on YouTube

A Jessica Rabbit Moment

How often do you get to lay on a blue piano and sing Elton John songs in front of people who won't "boo" you? Evidently, at least once. Among a number of super fun things that happened at my sister's wedding was an invitation to do just this.

We had the reception in the piano bar with our very own piano player. I cracked a joke about laying on the piano and he said, "Well, get on up there." You do not have to tell this girl twice. Embarrassing video of me butchering "Tiny Dancer" is forthcoming. 

Then we sang "Summer Loving" together. Not my pick, but Mike, the piano player, said, "Don't worry, I don't know all the words either." Well, you can't argue with that. 

After my turn, I offered some sage, sisterly advice to Em. "We only regret the things we don't do." And when I turned around, she was up on the piano, too. It was that kind of party. 

When Sarah returned from taking photos, we all climbed up there again for a quick sister picture. It was so nice of Carnival to paint the piano to match our dresses, don't you think. 

Parasailing! Why Not?

A few weeks before we left on the wedding cruise, John and I got in our heads that we should go parasailing. I'm not quite sure what cemented the idea for for us. Probably just they fact that it occurred to us that we'd never done it.

Hahaha, look how much fun we're having and we haven't even started. 

It's a cross between skydiving and water skiing. It requires no training and no athletic ability, a perfect vacation activity, right? And sure, people die occasionally. People die in the bathtub, but that doesn't keep you from showering. And sure, there's the added thrill of doing this on a Caribbean island where safety regulations are known to be a bit loosey-goosey. That just adds to the adventure, right?

Obviously, I'm here to tell the tale.

They hook you up right on the boat. They release the parachute and zip, up you go.

I'm not sure how high we went exactly. It was high enough to see across the island (Grand Cayman) and have a good view of the opposite shoreline. They told us, "Don't worry. Worst thing that can happen is the line breaks and you parachute to the water." Um, no. Actually, worst thing is the harness strapping us to the chute breaks, and we crash to our deaths. But who wants to argue on vacation. 

You don't even have to get wet, but we did. We had the driver slow down enough to dip us in the ocean before they landed us back on the boat.