[Aztlan] Follow-Up on NG Magazine

[eschele at mail.utexas.edu]

Greetings Aztlanders,

I am happy to report that I received the following message from one of the
National Geographic staffers this afternoon.  Although the average person will
not know what "the current Long Count calendar cycle" means, at least it is
more accurate than saying that according the Maya Calendar "the world is
supposed to end on December 21, 2012". I know that it doesn't fix all our
gripes with the magazine and its coverage, but it is one small concession. 
Apparently, she is offering to listen:

Dear Ms. Schele,

First and foremost, thank you for taking the time to write to the magazine
regarding the Maya quiz. We appreciate your input and apologize for the
delay in getting back to you.

We have changed the answer to the Long Count question you mentioned to
read, "The current Long Count calendar cycle is supposed to end on
December 21, 2012." We had a source within the magazine as well as an
outside source that described it as we originally wrote, but through
research have discovered the more common idea is the one you mentioned.

There were a few other issues mentioned to us through an email we received
of a listserv that included your observation. We have confirmed with well
known Maya sources, including those written by Mary Ellen Miller and Karl
Taube, that what we wrote was a common idea presented by experts. If any
of your peers who found the questions to be inaccurate wish to further
discuss what they considered errors, I would be happy to speak with them.

Thank you again for your time.

Sincerely,
Carolyn Fox

Carolyn Fox
NGM.com
(202) 828-6621
cfox at ngs.org
1145 17th St., NW, #533
Washington, D.C., 20036

Best wishes,
Elaine