#robert may

Continuing the #history of #mincepies and explaining why mincemeat is called #mincemeat and where does #fish come into the story?

Cooks and bakers in the 17th century were keen to explore the potential of the mince pie, becoming ever more adventurous with their recipes. Thomas Dawson delighted his readers in The Good Housewife’s Jewel (1598) with a recipe for a spiced pie using the humbles or innards of a deer, while others used one or more of tongue, lamb’s stones otherwise known as testicles, udder, and tripe. Instead of…

First Chefs: Fame and Foodways from Britain to the Americas is at the Folger Shakespeare Library through March 31, 2019.

May was born in Sydney in 1936 and originally trained as a physicist, becoming professor of theoretical physics at the University of Sydney in 1969. But in 1973 he shifted both continents and disciplines, becoming a professor of zoology at Princeton University, before moving to Oxford in 1988.

He brought the mathematical insights of a physicist to the then largely descriptive field of ecology, transforming it into a theoretical science with a firm mathematical basis. Nevertheless, he recognised the complexity of ecology in comparison with physics. I recall him saying “ecology is not rocket science – it’s much harder than that”.

His legacy is particularly important in the current crisis. The basic reproductive number of a disease, R0, is a statistical concept that permeates much of the discussion on how to manage the coronavirus pandemic. If we can reduce it to below one and maintain it there, we can eliminate the disease.

With his long-term collaborator, Professor Roy Anderson from Imperial College, May brought this concept to the management of infectious diseases more than 40 years ago. This distillation of a complex ecological process into a simple mathematical concept was typical of his scientific insight.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a pretty fun Christmas story; although I think the story behind the story is even better.

The story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer began in 1939 with a Jewish Chicago copywriter named Robert May. May worked in the ad department of Montgomery Ward, a department store chain second only to Sears as America’s largest retailer. Every year, they purchased and gave away free Christmas colouring books, but they decided that year to create their own. They gave the task of writing it to May with the instructions: make it about an animal. However, Robert May’s story would take a tragic turn. The same year, May’s wife contracted cancer, and when she died a few months later, he was left to raise their young daughter Barbara alone. His employer suggested he quit work on the book and turn in whatever he had done so far but May refused, writing years later, “I needed Rudolph now more than ever.” Remembering his daughter’s love for the deer at the Lincoln Park Zoo, May invented for the subject of his book a little reindeer with a shiny nose. He thought this creature might become a symbol for himself and Barbara that happier times lay ahead. He was right. When Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer came out at Christmas 1939, it was an instant hit.  Montgomery Ward gave out 2.4 million copies, and only stopped issuing it afterwards because of wartime restrictions on paper. When they resumed in 1946, it was even more popular. For all his efforts, Robert May never received anything more than his salary, but that changed in 1947. Sewell Avery, the head of Montgomery Ward, perhaps moved by the spirit of the holiday, gave all the rights for Rudolph to the copywriter. It was the first time the company had ever done so.