[Ads-l] Quote: Only kings, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we’.

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

A new entry is available on the Quote Investigator website about a
class of jokes that have been discussed on the ADS list in the past.
Ben and LH were acknowledged.

Entry title: Only Monarchs, Editors, and People with Tapeworms Have
the Right to Use the Editorial 'We'
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/13/we/

Several years ago Ben wrote a column for the New York Times on this topic.

Article title: We: The perils of a presumptuous pronoun
Author: Ben Zimmer
Date: October 3, 2010
Short link: http://nyti.ms/1ICku7L
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/magazine/03FOB-onlanguage-t.html

The QI article lists the earliest citation for a simple version of the
joke due to George H. Derby who used the pseudonym John Phoenix. Ben
discovered the crucial cite for the book containing the quip, and I
found the earliest edition of the target book.

The date of the earliest Mark Twain ascription has been pushed back to
June 1914. Nevertheless, the linkage to Twain was probably spurious in
my opinion.

Garson

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