Fact-checking question from Freakonomics / Shaw quote

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Great work Hugo! Thanks for your valuable and clever efforts. Using
the data of your more precise estimate I contacted a kind librarian at
the University of North Dakota and she was able to send me a scan of
the page with the quotation. Here is the citation information:

Date: May 6, 1933
Periodical: Commercial West,
Volume: 65
Quote Page: 27
Column: 3
Publisher: Financial Communications, Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
(Publisher data from catalog)

Freestanding quotation with no details given for provenance.

I now think that "Commercial West" copied the quotation from the May
1933 issue of Reader's Digest. The text in RD was an exact match. RD
was an important locus for the popularization of quotes.

(Emendation to previous message: I have received help from the
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis library system on multiple
occasions in the past thanks to the kind efforts of Dennis Lien.)

Garson

On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 9:50 AM, Hugo <hugovk at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Hugo <hugovk at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Fact-checking question from Freakonomics / Shaw quote
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>> Why do you think that the page 27 with the February 18, 1933 date is
>> the same page as the page 27 with the quotation?
>
> Aha, I made a mistake: I assumed there was only one page 27.
>
> My new estimate is Saturday, April 29, 1933. Here's my workings.
>
> On the left of same snippet as the top part of quotation, includes
> dates in the past:
>
> http://books.google.com/books?ei=TEnzUse0LIXp4wSF8IDACw&id=lssaAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22thinking+once+or+twice+a+week%22&q=%22international+reputation%22&redir_esc=y
>
> [Begin]
> J. E. Reimann, vice president of the Fred L. Gray Co., casualty and
> liability insurance agency, Minneapolis, was elected president of the
> company at a meeting of stockholders April 27.
> Mr. Reimann has been with the company several years and succeeds
> Charles H. Van Campen, who died April 24.
> [End]
>
> Searching "Charles H. Van Campen" in the same book gives a page 26:
>
> [Begin]
> Head of Gray Co. Dies
> Funeral services were held Wednesday for Charles H. Van Campen,
> president of the Fred L. Gray Co., who died Monday at his home in
> Minneapolis, aged 60.
> Mr. Van Campen attended the University of Minnesota, and ...
> [End]
>
> http://books.google.com/books?ei=TEnzUse0LIXp4wSF8IDACw&id=lssaAQAAMAAJ&dq=%22thinking+once+or+twice+a+week%22&q=%22Charles+H.+Van+Campen%22&redir_esc=y
>
> -> He died on Monday, April 24.
>
> -> He was 60 when he died.
>
> Here's a 1923 lifetime biography of Charles H. Van Campen (same
> university and company):
> http://files.usgwarchives.net/mn/hennepin/bios/1923/vancamch.txt
>
> -> He was born in 1872.
>
> If he turned 60 in the year he died, the year was 1932 (1872+60=1932).
> If he was to turn 61 later that year, it was 1933.
>
> April 24, 1932 was a Sunday:
> http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=1932&month=4
>
> April 24, 1933 was a Monday:
> http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/monthly.html?year=1933&month=4
>
> -> He died on Monday, April 24, 1933.
>
> So now we know the funeral was on Wednesday, April 26, 1933 and a
> meeting had been held on Thursday, April 27 1933 to appoint a
> successor.
>
> We're less than a week after Monday, April 24, 1933 if they can still
> refer to it simply as "Monday", and they seem to publish on Saturdays,
> so my revised estimate is Saturday, April 29, 1933.
>
> ----
>
> Anyway, as Garson said, this might have been after the "May 1933"
> Reader's Digest had already come out.
>
> Hugo
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org