There’s a high to be had in cheating, whether it’s to gain an edge, satisfy a guilty pleasure or test how far laws and boundaries will bend before they break, just for the hell of it.
Cheating is a notorious, infamous part of our pasts. There’s a lore to it, something fascinating about risking everything to get what would otherwise be unattainable. In some cases, we mythologize cheaters — John F. Kennedy and his innumerable women or the 1919 White Sox who threw the World Series. Most often, however, to be caught cheating is to have a reputation forever tarnished: Tiger Woods, Barry Bonds, New York Times reporter Jayson Blair.
USA Today dubbed 2012 the “Year of the Cheater,” pointing to Lance Armstrong, David Petraeus and the 125 Harvard students who were investigated for cheating on a take-home final exam.
Along those lines, here’s this week’s Tuesday Topic, a localized, interdepartmental look at our nation’s favorite pastime, from Kanye West's songs to Adderall abuse.
The 2012 cheating award for music goes to rap
