NYAM in the News

First, the good news (although it’s all good news from the Academy’s perspective): NYAM was mentioned in the NY Times this morning in the "Dining In" section, in an article titled "A Taste of Roman Cooking, Before Tomatoes". The story deals with the restoration of the Apicius, which dates from the ninth century and was acquired by the Academy in 1929. In a word, it’s the oldest cookbook in the western world, and it’s available for viewing in our rare book room by appointment.

A slightly less mouth-watering article in the October 9 issue of the New Yorker (no link to this, apologies) mentions us in a story titled "The Score: How Childbirth Went Industrial" (p. 62, first column). The author mentions the 1933 study of maternal deaths in childbirth done by the Academy.

Three completely unrelated items today:

The Microwave Cam is amazingly cool and kind of disturbing. You’ll see why when you click on the link.

The Dead Celebrity Soulmate finder is even cooler, but probably only for hard core history buffs.

I’m not at all sure where this came from, but it was forwarded by a coworker this morning. Before I paste it in here I want to go on record as saying I have no additional information to give about this and can’t say if it’s correct or not, but anyone who’s interested should do as much research as they can before coming to a conclusion one way or another:

I want to bring to the attention of ALA Councilors the fact
that we have a bona fide open racist running for Council this next election.
This is, in fact, his second run.

His name is Greg McClay; he formerly published a right-wing
blog called SHUSH and currently publishes a blog called "The Notebook"
fulminating against "liberal ALA" (that is to say, for him, against ALA).

Below is a sample, from last week, of his thinking, to my mind,
a clearly racist swipe at President-Elect Loriene Roy.

You see for yourselves. I want to let you see it because I
believe you are unlikely to come accross his blog where it appeared. I
especially am appalled by the part where he snidely says: "Apparently her
growing up in a wigwam is going to offer some profound insight on how ALA is
run." His supporters will jump to say : "And what’s racist about that?"
You decide.

And it’s not an isolated remark. He has time and again attacked
ALA’s commitments to diversity, the SPECTRUM initiative , etc. in a way
reminiscent of "white power" bloggers. He also argued at the last annual
conference against the resolution on the Darfur genocide, saying before the
Membership meeting "Genocides happen and will happen again": "why single out
Darfur?" He is an outspoken proponent of the use of torture by US forces– in
case you thought nobody in a profession like ours could make an affirmative case
for torture — and ridicules ALA’s position in strong opposition to those
practices.

He is already braying about getting his petition in order for
Seattle and lining up his "conservative" constituency — and a lot of people who
just plain don’t know who and what he is –to vote for him. I sincerely hope
those genuinely conservative members of ALA will not embrace this
bigot.

Make sure you and your colleagues know who McClay is. He is not
someone who has a few disagreements with the Council of ALA. He is opposed to
ALA’s most basic values.

Mark Rosenzweig

ALA Councilor at large

(FORWARD AS NEEDED)

[from Greg McClay’s blog:]

"Native Liberal

September 28th, 2006

A story over at LISNews about President-Elect Loriene Roy and her national
reading program for Native American children. I don’t have anything about the
story it just contains a description of Roy that we’ve already heard numerous
times and will no doubt hear many more times over the next 2 years. In case you
didn’t know, Loriene Roy will be The First Native American To Serve As
President Of The American Library Association! Apparently her growing up in
a wigwam is going to offer some profound insight on how ALA is run. I’ve met
Loriene Roy, she’s a nice person, but I’ve been given no reason by anything she
has said to date to think she is cut from any different kind of cloth than
current or past ALA presidents. "

FORWARD AS NEEDED

Mark C. Rosenzweig

Zhenjiang, Jiangsu Province,

Peoples’ Republic of China

I want to bring to the attention of ALA Councilors the fact that we have a bona fide open racist running for Council this next election. This is, in fact, his second run.

His name is Greg McClay; he formerly published a right-wing blog called SHUSH and currently publishes a blog called "The Notebook" fulminating against "liberal ALA" (that is to say, for him, against ALA).

Below is a sample, from last week, of his thinking, to my mind, a clearly racist swipe at President-Elect Loriene Roy.

He is already braying about getting his petition in order for Seattle and lining up his "conservative" constituency — and a lot of people who just plain don’t know who and what he is –to vote for him. I sincerely hope those genuinely conservative members of ALA will not embrace this bigot.

Make sure you and your colleagues know who McClay is. He is not someone who has a few disagreements with the Council of ALA. He is opposed to ALA’s most basic values.