Tuesday, November 1, 2005

REALITY CHECK: NOT EVEN A FOOTNOTE — by Steve Nadis

I just read William Finnegan’s New Yorker article, “A Theft in the Library,” which discusses the world of rare maps and the strange case of E. Forbes Smiley III. It took me awhile to get to the piece, which was published in the October 17 issue, because magazines have a way of disappearing into my wife’s handbag and not surfacing again for weeks. But I did finally read it, last night in fact, and was impressed with the level of research and scholarship that went into the article.

In previous posts, I mentioned that I had helped Finnegan out by putting him in touch with people who’ve known Smiley since grade school, high school, and college. I even discussed my “role” in a post about the convergence of blogging and journalism.

But after reading the New Yorker article, I now realize I was seriously deluded. Finnegan’s article takes up 10 PAGES of the magazine, which is a lot of text, and his discussion of Smiley’s college days takes up all of TWO SENTENCES. At the very most, the contacts I pointed Finnegan toward contributed to sentences totalling a mere 37 WORDS, which amounts to a small fraction of one percent of the whole article. In short, this blog was not at the nexus of blogging and journalism, as I once fancied. Nor did my efforts constitute even a “footnote to history,” as I previously claimed, which clearly overstates the case. Best to call it a “footnote to a footnote of history.” That, I believe, is a fair representation and something I can, in good conscience, put on my resume.

Posted by Snake in 15:15:35
Comments

9 Responses

  1. Anonymous says:
    November 1, 2005 at 7:24 pm

    Perhaps the word you’re looking for is toenote.

  2. Snake says:
    November 1, 2005 at 7:28 pm

    I like that. Maybe I’ll use it someday, perhaps right now as in: "I’m a tonenote to history. AND PROUD OF IT." Or maybe I’d better save it for a bumper sticker.

  3. Digs says:
    November 2, 2005 at 1:48 am

    Give yourself more credit, I know that most of the fact checking that Bill did was through a friend of Forbes that went to college with him, this friend talked with Forbes and many other college friends that you led Finnegan to to fact check things all over the artical. good work.

    digs

  4. Snake says:
    November 2, 2005 at 2:07 am

    Thanks Digs, maybe I’m back to a footnote after all…

  5. Windfall Woman says:
    November 2, 2005 at 6:17 pm

    At least you’re a digit!

  6. DrMax says:
    November 3, 2005 at 9:00 am

    But they were 37 CHOICE words.

  7. Snake says:
    November 3, 2005 at 2:11 pm

    Thank you Max. I think it’s fair to say–all bragging aside–that they were the best 37 words in the whole article. And thank you too, Windfall. It’s good to be a digit, at least as opposed to the (digitless) alternative…

  8. Anonymous says:
    November 17, 2005 at 11:56 am

    zardoz says:
    I AM
    A DIGIT
    BLOG ME.

    LAYGHTER ECHOING IN MY ROOM.
    LUVED IT
    ———————-ZARDOZ

  9. Snake says:
    November 17, 2005 at 2:47 pm

    Thanks Z; laughter is good (generally speaking).

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