No more nudies

An update on my story Infamous last words:

Seems that the ghost of Percy Saltzman - or more likely, someone from his estate - has been blogging again.

Or, un-blogging. Saltzman’s final post, Nudies and Me (Dec. 6, 2006), which I found both shocking and endearing, has been removed.

His blog now shows a new (?) final entry, posted December 9 (?) called Einstein, Chaplin, Tolstoy & Me?!.

It’s also clever, and perhaps more fitting - a summary of all the wonderful things people have said about him but were insufficient to win him the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award.

So…. how did this appear, and how did Nudies and Me disappear?

My best guess is that his heir (or his agent) thought a different legacy was in order, and rewrote the book blog.

Well, OK. If this was a grieving relative who thought Mr. Saltzman would have wanted different lasts words, who am I to argue. I don’t want to make their pain any worse.

On the other hand, as a journalist, archivist and internet user, this doesn’t sit right.

You can’t rewrite history. When something gets published, it stays published.

I occasionally run up against this in my job at the CBC Archives website. Guests look back at things they once said on camera and now regret. Reporters look back at their bumbling early reports and wish they could be expunged from the record. But it doesn’t work that way. Archives, like libraries and newspapers and magazines, don’t remove items because you (or someone else) change your mind. There is no un-publish.

People sometimes think the internet is an exception, but it isn’t. E-mail stays sent. Forum comments stay online. Web pages get copied.

Blogging is the ultimate proof of this. As I learned in my first week of blogging, when you blog something it not only stays blogged, but people will know about it, and you had better be prepared to defend it.

In fact, you can go ahead and read Nudies and Me (for the moment) using Google’s cache.

I figured Archive.org would also have it, but their Wayback Machine came up short. There are probably other blogging resources out there that have kept it.

(It’s certainly possible that I’m missing something, that there’s another explanation for the blog changes. Maybe it’s not really his own site. Maybe he programmed it to republish, or self-destruct. If anyone can enlighten me, please do.)
Anyhow, Nudies and Me still exists. I saved it. I’d repost it here, but I won’t, out of respect for those mourning Mr. Saltzman. You can always e-mail me.

Most of all, I hope that those who made it disappear know for certain that Saltzman wouldn’t have wanted it to stay online. From reading his work, it sounds like he stood behind what he wrote, this included.

Others agree - the only other blogger I found to reference Nudies had this to say:

Read it. It’s witty and intelligent and a great way to remember a Canadian icon. We’ll miss you Percy.

And now we miss some of your work.

[Story update: The day after I blogged this, it made the front page of the Globe. The full text of Nudies and Me has been posted on FRANKsters.]

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 01-19-2007 | 05:01 PM
Posted in: Teh Internets