Tales of New York Government

A couple of new Excelsior titles received a good deal of attention in recent days. The New York Times featured both books—Tales from the Sausage Factory and The Man Who Saved New York—in Sunday's edition. The Albany Times Union ran an extensive interview with the authors of The Man Who Saved New York, Seymour Lachman and Robert Polner, and the Staten Island Advance also featured an article on the book and interview with Seymour Lachman.

At a time when New York State's government seems more dysfuntional than ever, these books provide prime examples of how governments—local, state, and federal—can work to avoid the renewed threat of bankruptcy that now confronts not only New York, but most states.

Should lawmakers be allowed to draw their districts?

Seymour P. Lachman answers "no" in his recent New York Times op-ed piece. The former five-term New York state senator and coauthor of the forthcoming book, The Man Who Saved New York: Hugh Carey and the Fiscal Crisis of 1975, says that his years spent working in state government convinced him that allowing lawmakers to redraw districts can create a sort of lifetime tenure for elected officials and a near "imperial level of control for the majority leadership."

Read the full op-ed here.

Fairy Tales Go Viral

Looks like Ruth Bottigheimer and her book, Fairy Tales: A New History, really are causing a stir in the world of folklore studies and beyond. Fresh off the recent article in the Chronicle Review, Ruth made it into today's Idea of the Day section over at the New York Times website. The book is also the focus of an article in the Guardian. Both pieces delve further into Ruth's assertion that the commonly held notion of fairy tales being handed down through the oral tradition is false, emphasizing instead the role of print in the journey of "rise" tales, which passed through Europe and eventually landed in the hands of the Brothers Grimm.

The book has also been reviewed favorably by Fabula. Here's a snippet:

Distinguishing fairy tales from folktales and showing the influence of the medieval romance on them, Bottigheimer documents how fairy tales originated as urban writing for urban readers and listeners. Working backward from the Grimms to the earliest known sixteenth-century fairy tales of the Italian Renaissance, Bottigheimer argues for a book-based history of fairy tales. The first new approach to fairy tale history in decades, this book answers questions about where fairy tales came from and how they spread, illuminating a narrative process long veiled by surmise and assumption.

New catalog cover = instant nostalgia trip

Our Fall catalog is out and we wanted to share it with you. Those folks are partying like it's...1969. Do you spot yourself or one of your parents in that sea of humanity? So many people, so few shirts.

We're still gearing up for Woodstock's 40th anniversary. Here's an interesting article from the New York Times with the latest scoop on what's up happening with the anniversary concert planning.

**UPDATE**
Check out the Daily Swarm for feedback from Michael Lang on that Times piece we linked to above. Seems like that article wasn't completely accurate. The plot thickens...