Thursday, August 11, 2005
What's in a Name?
As one whose professional life has required proof reading skills, I used to have nightmares imagining myself as Maya Ying Lin working on the names of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. How *did* she get each name right, and how ghastly for the family IF she'd got anyone wrong.
In my own case, no matter *how* many eyes I trained on a catalog or advert or sales leaflet, it wasn't til the costly blueprint stage that Sod's Law would strike and the truly horrific errors reveal themselves. That, or they'd wait til I'd handed the client or CEO the finished job at which point there it would be, first word their eye alighted on - glaring from the page.So the case of the quirky Maria Alquilar resonates.
This is the sculptor whose $40,000 ceramic mural outside a California library included misspelled names of Einstein, Shakespeare, Vincent Van Gogh, Michelangelo and seven other historical figures.
The hoot is that, even tho' she was *paid* to correct them, she was pretty sulky about it.I owe hearing of this brouhaha to the incomparable, unmissable Michael Schaub in Bookslut.
But Maverick Philosopher is good, as is the SF Chronicle.
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