The words later labelled "grunge speak" were coined by Megan Jasper, then aged 25 and working for
Caroline Records. Jasper tested her interviewers' gullibility by supplying invented slang expressions of increasing ridiculousness. Marin's article, "Grunge: A Success Story", appeared in
The New York Times on November 15, 1992, as a full-page story in its Sunday "Styles" section. The article begins with an investigation on the origin of the term "grunge" and concludes with a summary of
grunge music and
fashion. Jasper's invented terms were published as a
sidebar to Marin's story, titled "Lexicon of Grunge: Breaking the Code" and crediting Jasper for "this lexicon of grunge-speak". The list was reprinted by the
Ottawa Citizen in December.
Thomas Frank was skeptical of the
Times lexicon, and contacted Jasper, who "readily admitted" the fabrication, as Frank reported in the Winter–Spring 1993 issue of
The Baffler. The
Baffler story was picked up by news media, including
Calvin Trillin's syndicated column. When the
Times got back to Jasper, she initially denied Frank's claims, so the
Times demanded an apology from Frank. Instead, he sent a letter standing by the story: "When The
Newspaper of Record goes searching for the Next Big Thing and the Next Big Thing piddles on its leg, we think that's funny." He considered the article to be part of an attempt by
mainstream culture to co-opt the grunge scene and felt that the
Times had gotten what it deserved. Jasper later ascribed her initial denial to a fear that Marin or "Styles" editor Penelope Green would be fired. Green commented to the
New York Observer, "Our piece was tongue-in-cheek, so I guess [the hoax] works. But how irritating." She prepared a
correction but the
Times never published it. ==Grunge speak words==