Americana: A Windblown Leif

On a wall in East Boston, one embittered Italian-American scrawled-'Leif Ericsson is a fink." In other cities across the U.S., indignant sons of Italy and politicians eager for their votes, reacted in like manner to word that Yale University had acquired a medieval map containing additional evidence that Leif Ericsson, riding the wild Atlantic winds reached the North American shore about the year 1000 (TIME, Oct. 15). Though Leif's landing is hardly news in scholarly circles, Yale's just-before-Columbus Day announcement stirred a storm of popular protest strong enough to have blown...

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