Saturday, October 2, 2010

HIStalk Praises ACMI President


The insightful and intrepid writers of the HIStalk Blog have heaped praise upon ACMI's President for his recent "play within a play" commentary on being published in The New York Times:
"This is brilliantly funny: You may know Ross Martin, MD as the guy behind the HITECH Operetta and Meaningful Yoose Rap in his role as President of The American College of Medical Informatimusicology, although he has a less interesting but probably much more lucrative HIT consulting job. He writes a hilarious letter to the editor of The New York Times for not publishing a previous letter of his, threatening a class action suit by rejected would-be authors and signing it, "Yours in the quest for wealth creation through victimization, President, Literary Mediocrity Association." They whittled his piece down to a paragraph, but they did run it. I think the HIStalk audience is more appropriate for his type of humor than that little New York paper."
We will forgive their slight misunderstanding of the order of events (it still confuses the staff of ACMI).  Here is the unembellished timeline of events for those who prefer their reality unseasoned by satire or irony: 
  • Dr. Martin submits a legitimate and not particularly funny letter to the editor of The New York Times Magazine in response to an article about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. 
  • Dr. Martin is notified that he is being considered for publication. 
  • When he didn't see his letter in the Magazine the following week, Dr. Martin writes a scathing rebuke to the editors informing of his intent to sue. 
  • Dr. Martin's original submission is published the following week (which aligned with the normal two-week publication lag of article responses).
  • ACMI issues press release on the publication of Dr. Martin's original letter and his threat to sue the editors.
We hope that this clarification satisfies our members and fans without diminishing from the enjoyment received in reading the entire work or detracting from our President's brilliance in his own mind and in the mind of his adoring public.