Our Member of the Week: Grace Meng

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From the low rise brick homes beyond the clot of shops, dive bars and pizza hang-outs crowding New York’s Jamaica avenue in Flushing Queens, voters from the borough’s multi-ethnic 6th Congressional District elected freshman Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng, the city’s first Asian-American representative in the Congress.

A political scion, Meng formerly represented the interests of the 22nd legislative district in the NYS Assembly; a seat once occupied by her father, Jimmy Meng. Mr. Meng burst the racial and political sound barrier in 2004, becoming the state’s first Asian-American member in the legislature. Disgraced by scandal, Meng declined a second run, and bowed out of contention in 2006 after serving only one term. As his former campaign manager and looking to inherit her father’s seat, Grace Meng was forced out of the race when her residency was challenged by its winner, Ellen Young. Meng recaptured the seat, defeating Young in 2008, and served two terms before mounting her bid for the Congress; her father pleaded guilty to charges of bribery in the fall of 2012, a week after his daughter’s crowning political triumph.

Dogged by ethics probes and campaign funding irregularities, the 6th’s embattled Congressman Gregory Meeks left the seat open when he jettisoned it for the 5th after Democratic icon Gary Ackerman announced his retirement; a political veteran, Ackerman controlled the seat since the Reagan Administration. Redrawn to favor Asian-Americans, and with over half of the district speaking a language other than English, the one common denominator in the ethnically diverse NY6 is that it staunchly votes Democratic. A highly competitive four way race, Meng clinched the primary, nabbing a key 11th hour endorsement by New York Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo. And like Meeks, Meng cruised to victory in the general, putting the boots to her Republican challenger, Councilman Dan Halloran in a 36 point upset.

During her tenure in the state assembly, Meng, along with then NY Governor David Patterson, also a Democrat, passed legislation striking the word, “Oriental,” from all state documents referencing New Yorkers of Asian descent. According to the 2010 Census, Meng’s home district in Flushing now outnumbers the Chinese population in Manhattan’s China Town. Before Meng, the assembly seat in NY22 had a high turnover rate; an inveterate Democratic constituency, the NY22 paved the way for high profile Chinese backed candidates, who fought fiercely contested races for supremacy while a vigorous electorate washed out its incumbents every two years.

Called the, “Fruit Basket Bribery,” Meng’s father was arrested in the Summer of 2012 for accepting a fruit basket stuffed with $80,000 in bribe money. Meng was purportedly peddling influence, and was caught hot handed with the trunk full of goodies when a confidential witness working undercover for the Feds tempted him with the prize as part of an ongoing federal sting operation. The arrest cast a long shadow over his daughter’s race, one which she would ultimately emerge from victoriously. With a prison sentence looming over her 69 year-old father’s head however, the win was bitter-sweet. Meng is 37 year’s old and is married to Wayne Kye. They have two sons.

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“Tapping the Admiral”

Today we learn about Lord Nelson, a British maritime hero whose body was preserved on the way back to London by pickling it in a barrel of brandy. Fair warning: Lord Nelson’s death is heroic, but the mortuary practice which followed it is gross and may even stop you from drinking for a few hours. However it is a part of this week’s Corpses of Interest segment, celebrating the recent discovery of King Richard III buried underneath a parking lot.

Lord Nelson, as you’ll recall, is the admiral who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at the Battle of Trafalgar. The victory provided all sorts of good material for plucky British operettas about eating limes and wearing powdered wigs and such. More specifically, Trafalgar stopped Napoleon from invading Britain, thus sparing us from the prospect of palatable English cuisine.

Back then the military didn’t have drones, so Lord Nelson actually had to show up on the deck of his ship to survey the battle personally. Unfortunately for him a French sniper managed to plug him, affording perhaps the most British death in all of history. When the captain of his flagship noticed that the admiral wasn’t around, he found Lord Nelson kneeling on the deck and bleeding profusely. Nelson told Captain Hardy, “I do believe they have done it at last… my backbone is shot through.”

That anyone could refer to a musket ball shattering his spinal column and lodging in his gut with such eloquence and politeness is astounding. One time I bent over to pick up a bottle cap and threw my back out, and I could barely even swear coherently. I did manage to swear, profusely in fact, but it took a lot of effort. If I got shot in the back with a musket I would not say things like, “I do believe.” I would say, “AAAAAAAAH! AAAAAAAAAH! BURN FRANCE TO THE GROUND! EVEN PETS!”

Captain Hardy ordered men to take the bleeding admiral below the decks, but on the way Lord Nelson paused the sailors carrying him so he could instruct a midshipman on how to properly handle a tiller. After relaying these helpful marine instructions despite having a steel marble lodged in his spine, Nelson draped a handkerchief over his face so that he would not cause alarm in the crew. Quite the team player. And again, almost obscenely British in his polite and orderly demeanor.

Lord Nelson died a few minutes later, on the eve of his greatest military achievement. Recognizing that the admiral constituted a great war hero, his men sealed his body in a barrel of brandy they had on hand to pickle it on the return voyage to England.

In Portugal they swapped the brandy out for wine. According to crew hearsay, the level of brandy had dropped precipitously from when they had plopped Lord Nelson in. Made of stout stuff and very likely raging alcoholics, the crew of the HMS Victory went ahead and drank the brandy knowing that it had an admiral stewing in it.

To this day the phrase “tapping the admiral” is a colloquial expression for grabbing a drink, particularly in the British Navy. A macabre reference to Lord Nelson’s final voyage, when nasty seamen helped themselves to the brandy they pickled him in.

Cheers!

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