Fwd: Y'know, there are typos and there are TYPOS!

[Joel S. Berson]

 From another list, from the NY Post.

(There's something to be said for electronic publishing.)

The OED is OK; how about the excellent Yale Book of Quotations?

But "Philander Chase, who spent 35 years editing the Revolutionary
War hero's papers," may have tunneled too far into the 18th
century.  He said (see below) " 'True administration' is probably
what we would say today, but 'due
administration' is more what they would have said in the 18th
century,"   The OED has, under "court leet":

  1604 Act 1 Jas. I, c. 5 To keep Court Leets or Court Barons, for
the true administration of Iustice, and to the punishing and
suppressing of offences.

Joel

>Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2009 23:24:18 -0600
>
>http://www.nypost.com/seven/02162009/news/regionalnews/george_denied_his_due_155401.htm
>
>GEORGE DENIED HIS DUE / TYPO FOUND ON CITY COURT AFTER 82 YRS.
>
>Call it a misquote for the ages.
>
>In a stunning slap at the Father of our Country, stone carvers got George
>Washington's words wrong on the landmark Manhattan Supreme Courthouse, The
>Post has learned.
>
>"The true administration of justice is the firmest pillar of good
>government," reads the inscription chiseled in granite above the fluted
>columns at 60 Centre St.
>
>But the nation's first president actually penned the word "due" - not "true"
>- according to centuries-old documents on file at the Library of Congress
>and National Archives in Washington, DC.
>
>The mangled motto adorns one of the world's most recognizable halls of
>justice, whose imposing Roman facade appears in the movies "The Godfather,"
>"12 Angry Men" and "Miracle on 34th Street," as well as countless episodes
>of the various "Law & Order" TV series.
>
>City and court officials were unaware of the outrageous rewrite until
>contacted by The Post.
>
>"It's a shame," said longtime New York County Clerk Norman Goodman, who has
>worked in the six-sided courthouse since 1969.
>
>A spokesman for the Department of Citywide Administrative Services, which
>manages the Foley Square building, blamed Boston architect Guy Lowell, who
>won a 1913 design competition. He died in 1927, the same year the courthouse
>opened.
>
>Washington, who took the presidential oath of office at nearby Federal Hall,
>coined the phrase in a Sept. 28, 1789, letter drafting fellow Virginian
>Edmund Randolph as the nation's first attorney general.
>
>Washington expert Philander Chase, who spent 35 years editing the
>Revolutionary War hero's papers, said the engraved phrase doesn't even sound
>like his style.
>
>" 'True administration' is probably what we would say today, but 'due
>administration' is more what they would have said in the 18th century," said
>the recently retired University of Virginia professor.
>
>James Rees, executive director of Washington's estate and gardens in Mount
>Vernon, Va., said the bumbled quotation joins a laundry list of slights
>against the American icon - most notably today's "Presidents Day" holiday,
>created after Congress changed the observance of his actual Feb. 22 birthday
>in 1971.
>
>Rees said the court error should be corrected.
>
>"Washington was a real stickler for detail. He wasn't one to let small
>things slide, so it would make a little bit of difference to him that they
>got this one right," he said.
>
>A fix would need approval from the city Landmarks Preservation Commission,
>which safeguarded the courthouse exterior from alteration in 1966.
>
>County Clerk Goodman, whose office distributes brochures about the historic
>building, said he would immediately print new ones noting the mistake.
>
>*bruce.golding at nypost.com*

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