[Ads-l] Quote Investigator - New York Times, BBC Radio 4, and Book

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fred Shapiro wrote
> The Times refers to Garson's magnificent Quote Investigator
> website twice, and probably based other things in the article
> on QI as well.  Congratulations, Garson!

Thanks for your wonderful compliment, Fred. The creation of the QI
website was inspired by your exciting and path-breaking research for
"The Yale Book of Quotations". Thanks also to Ben for the links to the
website in a recent Slate article.

Please skip the rest of this note if you dislike self-promotional material.

The QI website was mentioned on BBC Radio 4. The broadcast date given
online was September 27, 2015. The program was Open Book with
presenter Mariella Frostrup. The episode title was "Orhan Pamuk on A
Strangeness in My Mind". The website was graciously referred to and
praised by guest Erica Wagner who discussed the famous six-word "baby
shoes" story incorrectly attributed to Ernest Hemingway. Wagner is a
prominent author and was the literary editor at The Times for more
than 17 years.

The discussion occurred at minute 22 of the broadcast. Special thanks
to Wombat Katherine Harper who kindly notified me.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06d29br

On the Wednesday after the death of Yogi Berra there were over 23,000
QI visitors. This was a substantial jump above the 14,000 to 15,000
visitors expected on recent Wednesdays. Traffic follows a weekly
rhythm with fewer visitors on weekends.

Amazon is well-known as the top bookseller, and the company has also
become the most important avenue for self-publishing. In addition,
Amazon has established itself as a traditional-style publisher with
several imprints, and the sales of these imprints have been growing.

Recently, I signed a book contract with the Little A imprint of
Amazon. The book under preparation will be about quotations and will
contain material form the website. I am also writing some material for
the book that will not appear on the website.

Special thanks to Bonnie and Fred for early encouragement when I
joined the list back in 2009. Thanks to Barry Popik for his prodigious
and helpful research. Indeed, thanks to all the list participants.

Garson

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