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« Revelations about Aptheker | Main | Googlespooked » Monday, October 30, 2006Misquotes, etc.The other day, I wrote about a new book from Oxford University Press, "They Never Said That," that seeks to correct quotations that were never in fact spoken or were attributed to the wrong party -- also the subject of an Ideas column in May by Jan Freeman. Now I've learned that there's another new book that casts cold water on a slew of other old saws we all like to carry around. According to "The Yale Book of Quotations," P.T. Barnum's "There's a sucker born every minute" was concocted by who-knows-who, but not P.T. Barnum. But the Yale book, by Fred R. Shapiro, isn't only out to correct popular mistakes. At 1,067 page, it's meant to be an updated "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," incorporating quotes from pop culture, including ad jingles and lines from songs and movies. Shapiro quotes Shakespeare voluminously but also includes Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., including this classic: "outside of the killing [Washington, D.C.] has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." Posted by Evan Hughes at 09:40 AM
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