In a a burst of patriotic pride, members of the El Segundo City Council have decided that naming library rooms after Agatha Christie and Jack London would not be appropriate; here’s the story from the AP. Recently, the library staff, board and friends assembled a list of 25 well-known authors, and narrowed it down to Christie and London–but Mayor Kelly McDowell has asked them to start over with less politically charged–and strictly American authors.
Library director Debra Brighton was surprised by the council’s reaction, but said that they will now begin anew. A dissenting council member, Jim Boulgarides called Tuesday’s council decision “silly” and joked that Brighton should perform background checks on the newly assembled list of authors.
London, Man of the People .
Yes, well tell the Hungington Library. Is there any irony that a library funded by one of the wealthiest developers of the 19th-20th century has the biggest collection of London’s papers?
http://www.huntington.org/LibraryDiv/people.html
in keeping with history
When James Smithson, bastard son of the Duke of Northumbria, left his money to the United States to form the Smithsonian, several members of Congress wanted to reject the money on the grounds that a foreigner shouldn’t be able to buy immortality in the United States. To be fair, relations with Britain were substantially worse in 1835, 21 years after the burning of Washington. Eventually we accepted the money, but first melted it down and turned into United States dollars — and given that both forms of coinage were gold, that was a heavily symbolic gesture. [references]
The things we learn while trying to stave off a migraines during a tour of Alnwick Castle, seat of the deep of Northumbria.
Re:in keeping with history
Heh. _I_ learned that while touring “the castle” on the National Mall. Of course, this was also 21 years after the burning of Toronto by the Americans.
But we don’t hold a grudge.
Auction off the honor
The library is missing a good opportuity to raise money by auctioning off the honor of naming the library on e-bay. Particularly in CA where libraries are closing, here is an opportunity to do the Republican thing and let the market decide how much the honor is worth. And if the wining dollar amount winner wants to name it the Osama Bin Ladin Reading Room or che Geuvara Circulation Desk, well, the council had their chance already. Money talks. Besides, you can always re-auction off the name in ten years or, like, whenever. VBG
Others
Well, lets hope they never try and name something after W.E.B. Dubois.
Hmmmmm…. a Dubois room in a Carnegie library. I wonder which one would turn over in their grave first.
El Segundo?
So are they going to change the name of the town, too, because it’s un-American?