City Council "Lady" Gives "Lunatic" $5K To Teach Etymology

The NY Daily News and NY Post seize on the same City Council member item today. Here's how the News tells it: "The neighborhood lunatic of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, is getting $5,000 of your tax dollars to teach classes in a City Councilwoman's office about the origin of words." And here's the Post: "Here's your tax dollars hard at work. A city councilwoman set aside $5,000 in next year's budget for a wacky Brooklyn man with a rap sheet to teach courses in etymology at her district office."

The "lunatic"/"wacky Brooklyn man" in question is Lynval Samuels, who also calls himself Dr. Bidi XiLi Bey. While City Councilwoman Darlene Mealy's $5,000 grant hasn't been approved yet (the mayor's office has to review all grants), she told the News, "He's educating people and showing love, peace. I thank God he's in the community, and I stand firmly with his program...I should have gave him more." The Post explains, "Samuels, 56, teaches classes on the origins of words inside the Democrat's Crown Heights office on Saturdays, which he prefers to call the QidaMaWi HaYeLe SeLaSe Supreme Regal Lodge." Here's a taste of his teachings:

MEdiCaL - SciEncE With EtymoLogy and ConNotation

MaJoR PREMISE:

1. The words we use, in speaking and writing, have two Semantic meanings:
1. the EtymoLogic (original and true) meanings;
2. the ConNotative (un-true) and (deceptive) meanings.
2. Logic is the Science for:
1. True (coRRect) ReaSoNiNg:
2. Un-True (in-correct) ReaSoNiNg.

Both tabloids have photos of Samuels; the News writes, "Samuels was easy to find on Friday, wearing an all-red outfit, mismatched shoes and a plate-sized emblem of late Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I." And according to the Post, "The eccentric Samuels, who only accepts items passed from left-hand to left-hand, has a veritable shrine of Mealy's campaign posters plastered on his front door. On one of the signs, he crossed out the 'woman' in councilwoman and wrote 'lady' in black Sharpie." Samuels previously pleaded guilty to threatening and stalking Rep. Major Owens a few years ago, but Mealy said, "I did know that, and I believe that's personality. I never had a problem with him."

But one Crown Heights resident told the News, "I think it's a gimmick. There are a lot of hungry people out there. I'd rather see them be able to eat with that money."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on June 21, 2009 11:39 AM

Comments [rss]

BotanistPrime

The excerpt of his "teachings" reminds me of Prince's writing with less numbers.

Clarice City

Mealy is probably sleeping with him.

Barry Popik

Missouri professor Gerald Cohen and I solved the origin of "the Big Apple" in the pages of a publication called "Comments on Etymology. (I have a popular NYC etymology website, as some of you may know.) No one gave us $5,000. No one gave us a penny. I spent hundreds of dollars in copying costs and missed days of work for "Big Apple Corner." No one thanked me. The only thing we got from NYC government was a hard time every step of the way.

This guy isn't a consultant to the Oxford English Dictionary. He doesn't contribute to the Dictionary of American Regional English or the Historical Dictionary of American Slang. He's not a member of the American Name Society or the American Dialect Society. I don't know a thing that he's published.

Politicians sure know how to spend other people's money.

When will New York's overburdened taxpayers finally rise up and realize that they've been had?

bigmikebrooklyn

Wait, you mean this guy doesn't have any credentials??

bigmikebrooklyn

Wait, you mean this guy doesn't have any credentials??

jaycjay

but Mealy said he's worth it. "I should have gave him more," she said.

Perhaps the money should instead be spent on grammar lessons for certain City Council members.

just saying

LOL

Think2wice

Afrocentric pseudo-shamans are a so numerously hocking their trinkets and teachings in this town that I find it amazing that they still have an audience.

Take a little bit of Buddhism, a little Islam, some Santeria for flavor, some Rastafari for garnish, and wrap it up in the veneer of Egyptian...er...Kemetic symbolism.

Nick S

His writing is still more coherent than most of the stuff that Jen Chung posts on here.

just saying

Somebody piss in your coffee this morning?

Gnomie

Jen Chung apparently

fauxsella

"Samuels previously pleaded guilty to threatening and stalking Rep. Major Owens a few years ago, but Mealy said, 'I did know that, and I believe that's personality. I never had a problem with him.'"

... and a lot of Germans didn't have a problem with Hitler.

Snoopy

One can buy a really nice shotgun and shells for $5,000.

NannyState

What's the etymology of "Ithaca side-by-side"?

Spirit of 76

Hey, he never claimed he was teaching the etymology of English words and phrases. He's teaching the origins of the language he made up, which bears a vague resemblance to American English.

And it's not fair of the News to call him the neighborhood lunatic. I'm sure there are plenty more lunatics in the neighborhood, as there are in most.