Perhaps against my better judgement, I would like to inform you all that I have a meteorite article in the latest issue (May/June, 2003) of "Seed," pages 38 - 40, entitled "Tales from Tucson of Meteorites and Margaritas" (not my idea). "Seed" is a relatively new high-profile glossy national magazine, available on newsstands, which is (inaccurately, in my opinion) promoted as a "hip science" publication for young, cool scientist types (!?). It looks sort of like a cross between "Maxim" and "Discover." It contains photos of society openings, naked women, the "Valera" cow, lots of soldiers and demonstrations, and . . . well . . . let's just say it doesn't exactly have a unified vision.
A couple of months back, I was contacted by a very nice editor at the magazine. She asked me to prepare a piece on the history of the Valera meteorite, and the eventual offering of same at the Macovich Auction in Tucson. And that I did. The senior editor then decided that what *she* really wanted was not a piece about Valera, but one about the "eccentric characters" within the meteorite community. So, I re-wrote it. Then she decided that she actually, truly, wanted a story about the Notkin/Arnold birthday party and the Harvey Awards (yes, I know how weird this sounds -- being paid to write an article about my own birthday party for a science magazine?). Anyway, to cut a long story short, my article was heavily re-written by persons other than myself, and dopey phrases like "[Tucson] becomes a hotbed of meteorite passion" were added in against my will. "Seed" made it abundantly clear that I had signed a contract with them, and they were going to do whatever they wanted with my article, and if I wasn't happy about the clich�s and other made-up parts that had been added in, then that was just tough. And you thought the meteorite business was mean : )
On the positive side, List members Steve Arnold (IMB), Geoff Cintron, Iris and Allan Lang, Adam and Greg Hup�, Jim Kriegh, Darryl Pitt, and Matt Morgan are all mentioned by name in the article -- some in the capacity of Harvey Award winners. Michael Cottingham's excellent photo of the largest Valera meteorite and a stand-in (live) cow is printed nearly full-page size on pg. 38, and that is certainly worth a look (make sure you get paid for that photo, Michael!).
Please note: I am *not* suggesting that you go out and buy this magazine. "Seed" gave me a really hard time, and my short article is not worth the $4.95 cover price. However, it is, hopefully, well worth a glance at your local newsstand, mostly because of Michael's fine photo and -- hey -- you just might get a laugh out of the article too.
Regards,
Geoff N.
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