Jul 21st, 2009
As a brief coda to what seemed to be Fright Week last week here at MM (radiation! brutal murder! screaming trees!) I want to clarify my position: I don’t believe cities are inherently scary places, nor do I believe that rural Maine areas are completely saccharine and harm-free. Which brings me to today’s myth: putting [...]
Jun 24th, 2009
As the Mythographer prepares to visit her hometown in Maine this summer, she’s reminded of a conversation she had maybe 12 years ago with her college roommate, a native New Yorker. At this point, I was a Mainer planning to visit New York for the summer. And the two of us were talking about which [...]
Apr 22nd, 2009
The sale of Manhattan for beads and trinkets has become a truism, memorialized in a painting by Alfred Fredericks .
The value of said trinkets, reportedly “60 guilders,” does have a verifiable source, though the exact materials assigned the value does not. Meanwhile “60 guilders” has accrued an aura of shame and betrayal right up there [...]
Apr 14th, 2009
Three of the Mythographer’s favorite words are “according to legend,” especially when they are memorialized in bronze on a historical plaque. And such a plaque can be found in the Mythographer’s backyard, otherwise known as New York City’s Inwood Hill Park, where it is affixed to a boulder in the corner of a large field surrounded by paved walkways. “According to legend,” the plaque reads, “on this site of the principal Manhattan Indian village, Peter Minuit in 1626, purchased Manhattan Island for trinkets and beads then worth about 60 guilders.”