Tuesday, September 19, 2006
Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated?
Who said, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated"? John Moore? Kevin Burton? Casino.com about the death of the World Series of Poker? Or diveintomark.org on the death of TCP/IP by Microsoft?
If you were to believe the first page of Google search, all of these and more are original sources of the phrase. All use the words unattributed to the original source who was ... Mark Twain. He first said these famous words after reading a report of his death in the New York Journal. KDE.news got the source right, but missed on the date and time: Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated by Mark Twain on Sunday 25/Aug/2002, @06:38.
Use of quotes without attribution is a real problem. But then so would reading your own obituary.
Phrases.org gives the example of Dave Swarbrick, the British folk/rock violinist. The Daily Telegraph published his obituary in April 1999, reporting that "his visit to hospital in Coventry had resulted in his death." Swarbrick profited from the mistake two ways: he got to see "a rather favourable account of his life," but also got to quip "It's not the first time I have died in Coventry". It's not often you are afforded the opportunity to say such a great line. Right, Mark? See http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/368850.html
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