Titelman's POPULAR PROVERBS; Encarta's QUOTATIONS

[Bapopik at AOL.COM]

   Fred Shapiro has competition.  Sort of.  These books have tons of
quotations, but also tons of flaws.

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RANDOM HOUSE DICTIONARY OF
AMERICA'S POPULAR PROVERBS AND SAYINGS
by Gregory Titelman
480 pages, paperback, $16.95
Random House, NY, 2000 (revision of 1996 edition)

   This is a revision?
   The first book was fine--for 1995-1996.  That was before we had all these
computer databases.
   From the back cover:

   Gregory Titelman's instant classic is now available in paperback, revised
with over 100 new sayings....

   Ooh!  One hundred new sayings!
   I've been citing Titelman (I like the book's extensive discussion of each
saying), but also picking this apart for the past four years.  EVERYTHING
needs to be revised.  Computer databases have changed EVERYTHING.  Is
Titelman an ADS member?  Does he know that I've been working for free?
   The acknowledgments page drops all of the people in the first volume and
mentions only his children and grandchildren.  Jesse Sheidlower, for example,
is no longer mentioned.
   When I was ripping entry after entry apart in 1996 and 1997 and 1998,
didn't Jesse or someone else at Random House tell Titelman about the
revisions that were necessary?
   I guess not.  Amazing.  Too bad, also.  Titelman now reaches Robert
Hendrickson status with this out-of-the-loop "revision" of the "instant
classic."

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ENCARTA BOOK OF QUOTATIONS
1319 pages, hardcover, $40
St. Martin's Press and Microsoft Encarta

   This book has an editor, 16 editorial consultants, 13 contributors, 1
vetting editor, 13 contributing editors,  and 10 editors.
   Almost all of these people appear to be British.  Are any ADS members?
   Quotations are listed by person, and without discussion or explanation.
No page numbers are given in the citations.
   Several entries boggle the mind.  There are 11 quotations from W. C.
Fields, but almost every one is "attributed."  Alan Greenspan has four
quotes--and not one is "irrational exuberance"!  The New Yorker "spinach"
quote is there, but the "On the Internet, no one knows you're not a dog" is
not.  Bill Gates is a "U. S. business executive."  His famous quote about
"all the memory you need" is not here.  William Shatner is not here.  "Get a
life!" is not anywhere.
   Real American editors wouldn't make these errors!
   The book has "25,000 quotations from around the world," but most of them
appear to be cribbed from other quotations books.  There is no bibliography.
   The "famous person" theory of quotations really stinks.  For example,
Oprah Winfrey is here, but what she says is not memorable.  T. S. Eliot has
56 quotations.  Ralph Waldo Emerson has 68 quotations.  Schoolchildren can
crib like this!
   A Titelman format that examines the thing in detail is much preferable.  A
computer database such as Making of America can turn up the earliest citation
of a famous phrase (usually in a magazine and without a personal name
attached), but those citations aren't included in these "famous person" types
of books.
   There are also many variant forms of a phrase, but you'd never know from
this type of editorial organization.  Things that people actually do say
nowadays--like "Don't fight the Fed" or "If you snooze, you lose"--are not
here!
   Did all these people really work on this book?
   One Fred Shapiro (working part time) can beat all of these guys.  Doesn't
anyone besides us do original work?