> More evidence (see Stephen Gould on this sort of thing) of the great
> undependability of even the most vivid memories. I wonder how many times
> over the years I would pull something out of memory and pass it on to
> students when the memory was in fact this bad!
Yep. For years -- I blush to say how many -- I attributed that famous "present at the creation" line to Talleyrand (who is one of those guys, like Churchill, that attract floating quotations).
I finally had occasion to look it up a couple of years ago, and was utterly dismayed to discover its true provenance.
-- --Michael J. Smith --mjs at smithbowen.net
http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org