New York Times Corrections

[Beverly Flanigan]

At 12:15 PM 9/16/01 -0400, you wrote:
>    I stand corrected!
>    I had searched under "Barry Popik" (my name; I had found the citation
> in the course of my work) and DATAMATION (the name of the 1959 periodical
> where I found "personal computer").  Neither term is in the New York
> Times Correction:
>
>    An article on Aug. 19 about the origins of the personal computer
> referred incorrectly to the first use of the term "personal computer" in
> advertising.  A 1968 ad for a Hewlett Oackard desktop calculator was not
> the first occurrence.  The term was used at least as far back as 1959 in
> an advertisement for the PACE TR-10 transistorized computer made by
> Electronic Associates, Inc.
>
>    Amazing!  The New York Times actually made a correction!
>    Now how about correcting Charles Gillett's 1995 obituary, which said
> that Damon Runyon popularized "the Big Apple"?
>    Damon Runyon had never used the term.  I had sent my papers to the
> American Dialect Society member on the newspaper in 1992, and then also
> to nearly every single editor.
>    How about making the corrections in William Safire's Sept. 2000 column
> that involves my name and work--my professional reputation?
>    How come there's a quotation about George Thompson's sex life ("Fit to
> Print") and there's no quotation from the African-American stablehands
> who gave New York City its nickname?

Here we go again.  I seem to recall a promise some time back never to
mention Safire's treatment of you again. . . .
Could we get back to professional work and drop the personal stuff?

_____________________________________________
Beverly Olson Flanigan         Department of Linguistics
Ohio University                     Athens, OH  45701
Ph.: (740) 593-4568              Fax: (740) 593-2967
http://www.cats.ohiou.edu/linguistics/dept/flanigan.htm