Emdashes. The New Yorker between the lines

Best of Emdashes: Hit Parade
Weekly: Pick of the Issue
Bimonthly: Ask the Librarians

Submit a question for the next column.

February022007

Friday Squib Investigation: A Nut Museum, Tad Friend, and Enterprising Squirrels

Filed under: The Squib Report   Tagged: , , , , , ,

Martin Schneider, our trusty Squib Reporter, writes:

On Wednesday, Emily noted: "And R.I.P., too, Elizabeth Tashjian, who seems to have been, among many other things, the subject of a New Yorker piece."

Yes, she was; more than one, in fact. Two times, more than twenty years apart, she was the subject of a Talk of the Town item. The dates are March 26, 1984, and April 18, 2005. The first one, "Raided," by William Franzen, covered the hibernatory habits of small northeastern museums like Ms. Tashjian's Nut Museum. Her problem that winter, and for all I know every winter, was that hungry chipmunks and squirrels were prone to invade the museum, eager to usurp all the nutty goodness. We see her deciding to place her museum's holdings under glass, but she has a place in her heart even for the greedy little poachers: "They're making a nut museum of their own, I guess." Note that Franzen does not call her the Nut Lady.

The second piece, "Legacies," by Tad Friend, is especially poignant, as it has largely to do with her impoverished last years. Somewhat strangely, Friend does refer to her as the Nut Lady, even though he states quite clearly that she dislikes the nickname. Still: Friend puts the focus squarely on her plight, emphasizing her loss of control over her holdings. We learn that after being declared a ward of the state, she won back her
right to manage her own affairs. However, her museum had been sold to a woman who them cut down her nut trees (!); the item ends by describing a dispute over her (at the time) eventual burial. All in all, a terribly affecting article.

The only real question left is: Will Ms. Tashjian be interred in a plot of her choosing? I hope so.

0 comments

Post a comment

(If you haven't left a comment here before, it may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Thanks for waiting.)

2008 Webby Awards Official Honoree
Happy Fourth Anniversary to Us!
2009 New Yorker Desk Diaries
Inkleaf Studio illustration