LETTERS

Ogden Nash’s poem “On the Antiquity of Microbes” may be the world’s shortest (SW, Fall 2002), but his most controversial utterance was “The Bronx? No Thonks!” That aroused the publicity-driven ire of the borough president of the Bronx, James J. Lyons. A consummate Irish pol, Lyons issued a press release challenging Nash to come up to the Bronx and issued a public apology on the steps of the Hall of Fame, located on what was then New York University’s campus.

Nash demurred, but years later, the dean of the faculty of Bronx Community College, which had acquired the NYU campus, wrote to Nash on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee of the Bronx (1964) suggesting a gesture “to help us to smile over our own foibles . . .”

This time, Nash obliged, as follows:

I can’t seem to escape the sins of my smart-aleck youth.
Here are my amends:
I wrote those lines, “The Bronx? No thonx.!”
I shudder to confess them.
Now I’m an older, wiser man.
I cry, “The Bronx? God bless them!”

Richard Magat, retired
Bronxville, NY

Upon returning from the National Book Awards ceremony, I want to thank Ruth Winter for her very generous description in ScienceWriters of my book Mapping Human History: Discovering the Past Through Our Genes. The book had not gotten much attention before the write-up appeared in SW, and I’m convinced that Ruth’s description greatly increased the visibility of the book both within the science-writing community and, eventually, outside it. It was a tremendous honor for my book to be nominated for the award, and I want Ruth to know that she played an important part in the process.

Steve Olson, freelance
Bethesda, MD

#

ScienceWriters welcomes letters to the editor. A letter must include a daytime phone number and e-mail address. Letters may be edited. Letters submitted may be used in print or in digital form by NASW. Send to Editor, ScienceWriters, P. O. Box 1725, Solana Beach, Calif.92075, fax 858-793-1144, or e-mail lfriedmann@nasw.org.