Kirby Delauter, a councilman in Frederick County, Maryland, posted on Facebook recently that he didn’t want the local newspaper, the News-Post, to use his name without permission, and he threatened to sue them if they continued to. Somehow, though, the plan backfired. Yesterday, the newspaper published a perfect editorial response, titled “Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter, Kirby Delauter,” which uses his name dozens of times (including as an acrostic at the start of each paragraph), and jokingly suggests some alternative ways to refer to him (“Councilman [Unauthorized],” “G-Lat,” or “He Who Shall Not be Named”). That editorial, then, went viral, and got picked up by many other outlets — hi, Kirby! — who’ve used his name without permission way more than the local paper ever could have.
