Lesko wearing question-mark attire in 2007 | |
| Born | May 11, 1943 (age 77) |
|---|---|
| Education |
|
| Occupation | Book Author |
| Known for | 'Free Money' Books |
| Spouse(s) | Wendy Schaetzel Lesko, Roberta Kleinstein, Leila K. Kight |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | lesko.com |
Matthew John Lesko (born May 11, 1943) is an American author known for his publications and infomercials on federal grant funding. He has written over twenty books instructing people how to get money from the United States government. Widely recognized for recording television commercials, infomercials, and interviews in colorful suits decorated with question marks, Lesko's signature fashion also extends into his daily attire and transportation,[1] earning him the nickname Question Mark Guy.
Life and career[edit]
'This meme comes directly from South Park‘s season 2, episode 17 (30th in total) which aired on December 16th, 1998. In this particular episode, the children’s underwear are being stolen from them by gnomes for the purpose of “profit.” The process, as explained by thee gnomes goes something like this. Collect underpants.
Lesko grew up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Lesko received his undergraduate degree from Marquette University in Milwaukee. Upon graduation he was commissioned as an officer in the Navy. In the Navy, he served as a navigator aboard the USS Oxford in the South China Sea during the Vietnam War.[2] When Lesko returned he earned a master's degree in business administration (MBA) from American University in Washington, D.C.
In 1975, Lesko quit his job designing computerized information systems and co-founded Washington Researchers with his then-wife Leila K. Kight.[3]
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After a slow start, Lesko hit upon the idea of sending out a professional newsletter telling people how to get free information. The newsletter started bringing in clients, and by 1979 Washington Researchers employed 30 people in its Washington, D.C. office.[3]
As side lines of business, Lesko began publishing directories for those who preferred to do their own research, such as the Researcher's Guide to Washington, and conducting seminars on the types of information then available from the government.[3]
Lesko was able to interest publisher Viking in his idea to publish a directory of government information sources in 1980.[4] That book, Getting Yours: The Complete Guide to Government Money, was published by Viking's Penguin subsidiary in 1982.[5]
He claims to have researched government grants for over 25 years.[6]
Lesko lives in Kensington, Maryland, with his third wife Wendy Schaetzel Lesko and their two sons, Max and Morgan.
Criticism[edit]
Critics claim that Lesko is misleading in his advertisements. A 2004 report by the New York State Consumer Protection Board claimed that most of the grants mentioned in Lesko's books were actually public assistance programs that many people were not eligible for, and that Lesko misrepresented examples of people who had taken advantage of government programs.[7]
The New York Times criticized him for having implied a current association with the paper long after ending a 1992–1994 NYT column.[8]
Question Mark Memes
In 2005, Lesko was named #99 in Bernard Goldberg's book 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America because, 'He is a symbol for self-centered free-riders.'[9]
In an interview with the Washington Post in July 2007, Lesko admitted having assembled his books from government guides to grants and loans, quoting Lesko as saying of his first book 'I plagiarized the whole thing' and 'I didn't write a lick.' Lesko later added 'I get stuff for free and I sell it for as much as I can get.'[10]
In popular culture[edit]
- In the season four episode of The Venture Bros. titled 'The Better Man', Jefferson Twilight trains with cardboard cut-outs of various villains. When one of the cut-outs turns out to be Matthew Lesko, Jefferson explains that he mistook Lesko for a villain 'he was wearing punctuation on his suit', like that worn by Batman villain Riddler. The Alchemist contends that he 'helps people get free money from the government' and therefore is a good guy.
- Comedian Andy Dick parodied Lesko on his short-lived MTV sketch comedy program The Andy Dick Show.
- Lesko appeared as himself in advertisements for the album Danger Doom.
Books[edit]
Matthew Lesko's company, Information USA, has published several reference books including:
- Information U.S. (1986, ISBN0-14-046745-9)
- Getting Yours (1987, ISBN0-14-046760-2)
- 1001 Free Goodies and Cheapies (1994, ISBN1-878346-25-3)
- Free College Money, Term Papers, and Sex Ed (1994, ISBN1-878346-24-5)
- Lesko's Info-Power (1994, ISBN1-878346-17-2)
- Free Health Care, Free Medical Information and Free Prescription Drugs (1995, ISBN1-878346-34-2)
- Gobs and Gobs of Free Stuff (1996, ISBN1-878346-33-4)
- Free Legal Help (1996, ISBN1-878346-35-0)
- Free Stuff for Busy Moms! (1999, ISBN1-878346-49-0)
- Free College and Training Money For Women (2000, ISBN1-878346-52-0)
- Free Money and Help for Women Entrepreneurs (2000, ISBN1-878346-51-2)
- Free Money For Your Retirement (2000, ISBN1-878346-60-1)
- Free Stuff for Women's Health, Fitness, and Nutrition (2000, ISBN1-878346-50-4)
- Free Money To Change Your Life (2001, ISBN1-878346-40-7)
- Free Money To Pay Your Bills (2003, ISBN1-878346-65-2)
- Free Money To Get A Better Home (2004, ISBN1-878346-67-9)
- Free Money To Quit Your Job (2004, ISBN1-878346-68-7)
- Free Money for Entrepreneurs (2005, ISBN1-878346-69-5)
- American Benefits for Seniors: Getting the Most Out of Your Retirement (2006, ISBN1-878346-87-3)
All of his books claim to contain information about how to get free money from the United States government.
References[edit]
- ^'Questions for Matthew Lesko, the Question Mark Man'. The Black Table. 2005. Retrieved 2015-11-16.
I have a yellow Mini Cooper with question marks on it. I have a little orange Scion with question marks on it ... I usually ride around on a Vespa with question marks on it. Question marks are my anti-theft device.
- ^Triplett, William. 'Matthew Lesko The 'Free Money' Man: Asking the Right Questions', Vietnam Veterans of America, The VVA Veteran Online magazine, May/June 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
- ^ abcKernan, Michael (20 March 1979). 'The Facts Fanciers... From Cocoa Beans to Clothespins'. The Washington Post. ProQuest147018445.
- ^'Media Fast Track'. The Washington Post. 13 January 1980 – via Proquest.
- ^'Media Fast Track'. The Washington Post. 25 April 1982. ProQuest147447111.
- ^Carlson, Peter (2007-07-15). 'Marked Man: Washington's Infomercial King? Matthew Lesko, No Question'. Washington Post. Retrieved 2007-07-15.
- ^'How misleading advertising is feeding a nationwide boom in government grant scams'(PDF). New York State Consumer Protection Board. 2004. Archived from the original(PDF) on December 7, 2006. Retrieved 2006-04-30.
- ^Fred, Joseph P. (3 March 2005). 'Free Money? Sure. Heard of Food Stamps?'. The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-04-22. 'In August 2006, Lesko modified his credentials on his Web site, lesko.com, which described him (as his books did) as a columnist for Good Housekeeping Magazine and The New York Times Syndicate. He wrote the magazine column in the 1980s and the column for the syndicate from 1992 to 1994. Both organizations recently told him that these did not justify his suggestion of a current association.'
- ^Dhingra, Philip (8 Aug 2005). 'Bernard Goldberg's 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America? And Why?'. Philosophy History.
He is a symbol for self-centered free-riders
- ^Carlson, Peter (15 July 2007). 'Marked Man'. Washington Post.
External links[edit]
- Better Business Bureau of Washington, D.C. Report 14 November 2007
- 'Questions for Matthew Lesko, the Question Mark Man' – 29 September 2005 interview with Matthew Lesko
- 'The Culler of Money' – 6 July 2005 Baltimore City Paper interview and article
- 'Free Money? Don't Think So' – Consumer Affairs report on Lesko
- We Tell Your Story To The World Matthew Lesko interview by Mike Sullivan of Sully's Blog
- [1] 'Matthew Lesko is a Role Model'
- Appearances on C-SPAN
Apple has confirmed a bug in iOS which causes 'question mark boxes' to appear in place of the letter “i”.
Users across the web are noticing tweets, messages, and other content showing a letter “A” followed by a question mark in a box.
Proof that my “I” changes to that. :| @AppleSupportpic.twitter.com/7K9ikR9DkU
— flava (ღ˘⌣˘ღ) ♫ (@flavavicious) November 5, 2017This issue is being caused by iOS 11.1 which has an auto-correct bug that inserts this broken string when the user tries to type the letter “i”.
Question Mark Clip Art
Update: Apple released iOS 11.1.1 on November 9, 2017. This update fixes the autocorrect bug for all users. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and tap Download and Install to update to this version of iOS and stop the letter “i” autocorrecting the wrong way.
Other variations of the issue may show the malformed letter “i” as:
- # ⍰ (number sign followed by a question mark in a box)
- A ⍰ (letter A followed by a question mark in a box)
- ! ⍰ (exclamation mark followed by a question mark in a box)
- A 𝄘 (letter A followed by a multiple horizontal lines or an empty box)
Apple Support is currently respondingtousersata rate of one per minute on Twitter about this issue.
Apple confirmed to Emojipedia that a fix is on the way, stating:
“We are aware of this autocorrect bug. A fix will be released very soon.”
Joanna Stern at The Wall Street Journal reports that the issue will be resolved in this week’s public and developer beta releases.[1]
In a support document, Apple explains the issue:
“If you updated your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to iOS 11.1 and find that when you type the letter “i” it autocorrects to the letter “A” with a symbol”
Above: How this bug looks to affected iOS 11.1 users.
The suggested workaround for this bug is to use the text replacement feature built into iOS:
- Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement.
- Tap +.
- For Phrase, type an upper-case 'I'. For Shortcut, type a lower-case 'i.'
This isn't ideal, but the document does note this is only “until it’s fixed in a future software update”. Which is hopefully very soon.
What's really going on is that the letter 'I' is being appended with an invisible character known as Variation Selector 16 when auto-correct kicks in to replace the lowercase 'i'.
This VS-16 character is intended to be used to make the previous character have emoji appearance.[2] When used in conjunction with the letter 'I' it displays in some apps as 'A ⍰'.
The correct behaviour should be to ignore the invisible variation selector if the previous character doesn't have an emoji version.
If you're just seeing this in tweets from your friends or other people across the web, I'm sorry to say but there isn't much you can do about it.
In fact, it might be hard at a glance to tell whether you're missing an emoji that your system doesn't support, or if it's due to this iOS bug.
Usually a missing character box is indicative of a missing emoji, but in the tell-tale sign here is the capital letter 'A' which precedes the question mark box.
Workaround:
- If you see text with a capital 'A' followed by a missing character box, read it as if it says 'I'.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
...at least the lowercase 'i' isn't common in Apple product names 😉
fixed it pic.twitter.com/r3ljETuugg
— Jeremy Burge (@jeremyburge) November 6, 2017If you found this article interesting or helpful, consider signing up for our free, monthly email. It contains emoji news, tips, podcast links and more. Just enter your email address below.
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To me, that means it will be in iOS 11.2 which would likely come out in a general release in the second half of November. ↩︎
eg: Snowman is an old Unicode character ☃ but if you append Variation Selector 16 you get the emojified version: ☃️ ↩︎