What next?

The Vadney is posting new messages to his scandalous blog at a fast and furious rate. I have better things to do than answer or even read all of them. A few comments will have to suffice:

• The Vadney seems to have trouble with simple things like reading and arithmetic. (His writing skills aren’t up to much, either!) For example, he mentions my retirement in the “early 80s”, and referred to the date as 1981 in a comment he attempted to post on this blog. Actually, as my CV shows, I retired in 1985. Similarly, he places my age in the “mid 50s”, despite my having given my birthdate as 28 May 1957, which makes me 50 at the time of writing.
  
  
• The gap in my CV, as one might suspect given the reason for my early retirement, was due to health problems. This is one disadvantage of being truthful; if I had the Vadney’s ethics, I could simply have put in other jobs, or backdated the beginning of my translation career.
  
  
• The Vadney, not for the first time, tries to cast doubt on my credentials. As far as I know, the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University and the Chartered Institute of Linguists all confirm their degrees and diplomas free of charge. So I would invite anyone who entertains the suspicion that the Vadney has a point to contact the institutions concerned. For reference, here are the degrees and diplomas I list on my CV:
  
  
  
  • University of Adelaide: Bachelor of Arts (1978), Diploma in Computing Science (1980). (750907E)
    
  • Australian National University: Bachelor of Letters (1984). (80M356)
    
  • Institute of Linguists: Diploma in Translation (French to English) (2003), Diploma in Translation (German to English) (2003).
    
  
  For ease of reference, I have put in my student numbers at the two universities concerned. Please feel free to use those numbers in making your enquiries. I will not threaten you with prosecution under imaginary laws (or even real ones).
  
  
• No number of years’ experience will make an incompetent person in any job into a competent person. A Vadney with 25 years’ experience is still a Vadney, and will still be vastly inferior to an average translator who qualified yesterday.
  
  
• The Vadney describes my academic career as “a bit difficult to swallow”. If you want to see a real example of an implausible “academic” career, check out this beauty from the Vadney’s ProZ.com CV, which I downloaded 2 August 2007 (the lies are too numerous to mention):
  

  Education
  

  
  State University of New York Albany, NY 1977 - 1979
  
  
  
  • B.A., Philology & Physiology
    
  • M.A., Philology & Psychology (Physiological)
    
  
  
  • Rutgers University Newark, NJ 1990 - 1991
    
    
    
    • Post-graduate Studies in Zoology
      
    
    
  • University of Medicine & Dentistry Newark, NJ 1990 - 1991
    
    
    
    • Post-graduate Studies in Pathology / Anatomy / Microbiology
      
    
    
  • City University of New York New York, NY 1986 - 1986
    
    
    
    • Doctoral Program, Biochemistry
      
    • Continuing Post-graduate Studies – Literary Theory & Criticism, Philology
      
    
    

  
  Continuing Education:
  

  
  
  • Harvard Medical School - Continuing Medical Education
    
  • Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
    
  • CDC Comprehensive and Updates - Tb/HIV/STDs
    
  • Johns Hopkins CME
    
  • UMDNJ CME
    
  • IKON Microsoft Systems Engineer & Software Applications
    
  • Novell System Administrator

  
  
• It is interesting to compare the above alleged educational career with the more compressed version from his campaign website:
  

  
  Universities: University of Maryland (liberal arts, psychology); State University of
  New York (philology, psychology); University College of London (London); Hunter
  College (molecular biology); City University of New York "CUNY" (biochemistry,
  philology); Rutgers University (biology, zoology, physiology); University of Medicine
  and Dentistry (pathology/anatomy and allied sciences). Continuing Education:
  Harvard School of Medicine (CME); Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (CME);
  CDC (certificate courses in STDs, TB and HIV); Microsoft Network Engineer and
  Novell Network Specialist training and MS Office Applications; applications training.
  New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, Judicial
  Campaign Ethics.
  

  
  Note that the list of institutions doesn’t match: University of Maryland, Hunter College and “University College of [sic!] London” (apparently he expects us to believe he attended a university whose name he can’t get right!) have been added. Also note the biggest joke of all: “New York State Unified Court System, Office of Court Administration, Judicial
  Campaign Ethics”! Apparently they forgot to teach him that lying about your credentials was not allowed.
  
  
• On reading the cute little aside “(Wait a minute! There are some amazing parallels between Benham and Rodney Dangerfield!)” I actually had to look up Rodney Dangerfield, but having done so, I think that having successfully relaunched his career in middle age is something for which he deserves respect, not ridicule.
  


• The Vadney has finally come out and said he was once elected a Fellow of the FRSA. Apparently, it didn’t occur to him that to keep his membership current, he was supposed to pay his dues every year. One might question the legality of even keeping the certificate under those circumstances.
  
  
• In the case of the IoL, the rules state specifically that the membership certificate must be returned if membership is discontinued. And the Vadney has admitted in many places (his “updated” CVs, for example, and this forum thread) that he is not a current member. And he still brags about having the certificate. Naughty, naughty!