True Story:
In 1820-something, John Adlum, one of America’s first wine geeks and sometime correspondent of our TJ’s, writes to his friend Nicholas Longworth, “In bringing this grape [by which he meant the Catawba] into public notice, I have rendered my country a greater service, than I would have done, had I paid the national debt.” [...]
Posts Tagged ‘spurious quotations’
Whacked another mole
Posted in Reference Questions, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged John Adlum, spurious quotations, wine on June 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is how bogus quotes are born
Posted in Articles of Note, Websites of Note, tagged spurious quotations on March 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Last September, I received a question from someone looking for a Jefferson letter titled, “The Value of Constitutions.” Jefferson didn’t usually bother to give his letters titles, so this was a bit puzzling. I finally figured out that this letter had been published in a volume edited by Edward Dumbauld, chapter 4 of which was [...]
Another quotation debunked!
Posted in Reference Questions, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged spurious quotations on March 9, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Most quotations we’re asked about sound nothing like Thomas Jefferson, but since I can’t pin down their true source, they sort of hang frustratingly out there in Quotation Limbo. So it gives me great satisfaction to be able to actually run one to ground once in a while. I just laid this one to rest:
“My [...]
From the Weird to the Wonderful
Posted in Jefferson in the News, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged spurious quotations on February 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Well, it took me all day but I plowed through all of the Google Alerts I’ve gotten in the past week (even the weekend ones, that’s how dedicated I am), just as I said I would, and came up with the following numbers:
A total of 22 websites quoted TJ in some form or fashion. (Mind [...]
A little experiment
Posted in Jefferson in the News, Reference Questions, tagged spurious quotations on February 20, 2009 | 4 Comments »
A few days ago I set up a Google Alert to let me know when any new material appeared on the Internet (or technically speaking, in Google’s index of the Internet) with the phrase “Thomas Jefferson.” Amidst all the reportage of Thomas Jefferson High School’s basketball triumph over West Diddlyfunk and so forth, in each [...]
Quotation Frustration
Posted in Reference Questions, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged spurious quotations on December 17, 2008 | 3 Comments »
I know: again with the quotations! We are experiencing a strange swell in quotation questions, however, so it’s pretty much all I have to talk about these days. There’s one in particular that is bugging me, so I thought I’d throw it out to our 6 loyal readers in case there’s a chance others can [...]
Epic 10-part reference question
Posted in Reference Questions, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged spurious quotations on December 10, 2008 | 7 Comments »
We get a lot of questions from the public asking us to verify quotations as Jeffersonian or not, but these almost always concern only a single quotation. The other week I got a query from an inquiring person that contained not one, but 10 quotations. The source of the query was a sort [...]
Who is the liar now?
Posted in Reference Questions, tagged meteorology, spurious quotations on November 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
For my Fake TJ Stories files, and for the edification of our 6 devoted readers, I offer the following Reference Question Tale:
It is claimed, by websites and other sources various and sundry, that Thomas Jefferson, upon hearing of a meteorite crash in Connecticut in 1807 and its subsequent reportage by two professors at Yale, scoffed [...]
Taking Jefferson’s name in vain (again)
Posted in Reference Questions, TJ Encyclopedia Entries, tagged banks, financial, spurious quotations on October 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes it seems an uphill battle, disabusing people of the notion that Jefferson is the source of every smart, catchy thing ever said. I was reassured this week to find out that I’m not alone in my efforts. An intrepid blogger became suspicious of a supposed Jefferson quote that has risen to the surface during [...]
