Ms. Know-it-all and the New York Times
I am the titular Ms. Know-it-all, a phrase my brother used last weekend and which sometimes fits me perfectly. Last Sunday the NYTimes ran an article about an amazing program where scientists are training citizen-scientists to capture DNA samples from bigleaf maples to protect them from illegal harvests. Sadly the Getty Images photo they chose to accompany their article was not of a bigleaf maple leaf. My guess is that the pictured leaf is from a Norway maple.
I whipped on my Ms. Know-it-all britches, harnessed up Ms. Beezus and we went over past the cemetery where I know a bigleaf maple grows but was skunked because all the leave were too high. Undeterred we trudged on to another bigleaf maple and snagged a leaf hanging low.
I photographed it using all the skills I have and my iPhone, so you know it was a great shot, and sent it to the NYTimes story editor. Okay, I sent it first to the wrong email, but then sent it to the correct one.
Apparently, while they are very interested in the accuracy of their articles, their dedication to the truth in their images is a bit slipshod.
Here is the picture that accompanied the article:
Here is an actual bigleaf maple:
They are very different and not surprisingly the bigleaf leaf is bigger than the Norway maple.
The britches are getting a bit tight, so I need to slip them off and get back to my Sunday tasks.
Write on!
