Matthew Coster was expelled from Central Connecticut State University in 2006 for committing plagiarism. . . Except he wasn't really a plagiarist. A state judge has ruled that Coster was actually the victim of another student, Cristina Duquette, who stole Coster's paper from a mailbox, edited it into what their professor decided was a better paper, and turned it in as her own.

In August, architecture critic and author Philip Nobel wrote a piece for Elle about his affair with his twenty-something research assistant and subsequent divorce from his wife of ten years. The response online, particularly from women, was huge. Run a search for “Philip Nobel” and you’ll find freelance journalist Lindsay Beyerstein’s “Worst Person On Earth” treatise among the top three.

There's nothing like a politician admitting that he got it on with a woman who is not his (powerful) wife to provide an opportunity to explore gender roles and sexuality. Many of us thought that the Elliot Spitzer debacle was a ripe opening to talk about the suffocating Madonna/whore dichotomy that women (and men) suffer through.

As teachers, we all remember the first time we busted a student for plagiarizing. A range of emotions accompanies such a discovery. I'm angry at the student for trying to take a shortcut on the assignment. I'm saddened that the student is too stressed or lazy or apathetic to actually attempt to complete the assignment herself. I'm shocked that the student thought I wouldn't catch him. And I'm satisfied that I have the professional chops to sniff out the mildest whiff of plagiarism. It's the middle of the term at many K-12 schools and universities--AKA cheating season--and bloggers are weighing in with stories about plagiarism, theories about its causes, and methods for discouraging cheating on written assignments.