Today's New York Times

[Fred Shapiro]

If anyone is interested in my quotation dictionary project, there is a
substantial article about it in today's New York Times (page G8).  I can
imagine better photographs (the one on page G1 is a little better), but
the article is pretty good -- few mistakes by journalistic standards.

Some corrections or clarifications:  The article focuses on my use of
JSTOR and mentions a few other databases.  In reality, I use quite a few
databases, some of which are likely to prove as useful as or more useful
than JSTOR.  Hein Online is referred to as "a database of legal
quotations"; it is actually a database of legal periodical articles.

My use of JSTOR to find a 1952 occurrence of "There is no such thing as a
free lunch" is mentioned, but it should be added that I had previously
discovered a 1938 occurrence of this saying using noncomputerized methods.
My tracing of the term "personal computer" back to 1968 is described, but
it should be added that Barry Popik has just found a 1959 citation.  I am
said to suspect that Kenneth Olsen's alleged 1977 quote about "There is no
reason for any individual to have a computer in their home" is a
fabrication, but I think it may be a real quotation or a paraphrase of a
real quotation.

Fred Shapiro


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Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
Associate Librarian for Public Services     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
  and Lecturer in Legal Research            Yale University Press,
Yale Law School                             forthcoming
e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
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