Monday, May 25, 2009
Media likely ignored monument on artistic grounds
Tom Angleberger
The New River Valley-based reporter answers your questions Mondays in his column, What's on Your Mind?
Recent columns
Q: Have you heard anything about the Teardrop Memorial, given to the U.S. by Russia in 2006 to honor those killed on 9/11? I did not see it reported by TV, radio, newspaper or any other media. Why was this not front-page news in all the media?
-- James Harrell, Roanoke
A: This is one of those e-mail "news" items that's getting passed around. Surprisingly, shockingly, it appears to be right when it suggests that the media overlooked the story.
This newspaper and others appear to have largely ignored the installation of a giant teardrop memorial in New Jersey. It's a big tower, cracked down the middle with a very long, shiny teardrop in the crack. It was placed so that the viewer sees it against the backdrop of New York City. The monument was unveiled on Sept. 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.
Now, don't go complaining about the liberal media ignoring this for some nefarious reason. Former President Clinton was part of the unveiling ceremony. Isn't that liberal enough for you? And for conservative news outlets, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff participated. (Russian leader Vladimir Putin had come one year earlier for the groundbreaking.) And for everyone else, LeAnn Rimes was there singing "Amazing Grace."
So if those famous folks were there, why weren't the media? The Roanoke Times was busy following the HUD audit of the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority. Some newspapers may have run a close-up photo of Rimes, which shows only a small portion of the monument in the background.
The New York Times did cover it, but they seemed hung up on mistakes on the list of victims' names. That paper had previously written about the monument with a story called: "A Jersey City Teardrop for 9/11, Or a 10-Story Embarrassment?" (Jersey City declined the monument and Bayonne snapped it up.)
Why would anyone decline a monument or call it an "embarrassment?" For one thing, the creator of this sculpture is one of the most controversial artists on the planet: Russia's Zurab Tsereteli. For another thing, a giant shiny teardrop is some people's definition of "tacky."
The New Yorker magazine waited almost a year to cover the monument. Then, in a short, rather unflattering article, they interviewed the artist Tsereteli:
"The tear that came out of my eye and fell, that gave me the idea for the monument."
Sounds like a great story to me.
On the Net: www.911monument.com
Grammar Grumblings
This week it's not so much a grumble as a question, from Jim Lewis, a Bonsack resident who moved here recently from Ohio.
"We've frequently observed situations in which people use the term 'cent' when 'cents' would be appropriate. Example: 'The price of that item is 99 cent.' We've never noticed this in any other part of the country. Can you help us understand this?
Let's turn to our grammar guru, retired English professor Virgil Cook for the answer:
"Expressions such as '50 cent' and 'five year ago' are nonstandard constructions that were more common and more acceptable in 18th-century England and especially in Scotland.
"All such uses that I can think of are units of measure: 'cent,' 'foot,' 'mile' 'year.' To say 'I live five mile from here' is merely to use an old expression that has grown out of favor.
"In his popular 'A Red, Red Rose,' Robert Burns writes, 'And I will come again, my Luve,/Tho' it were ten thousand mile.'
Got a question? Got an answer? Call Tom Angleberger at 777-6476 or send an e-mail to woym@roanoke.com. Don't forget to provide your full name, its proper spelling and your hometown.
Look for Tom Angleberger's column on Mondays.
