[Ads-l] Quote: The man who is good at making an excuse is seldom good at anything else

[Dan Goncharoff]

I would think that "Anecdotes of Doctor Franklin" refers to Jefferson's
writings on Franklin, but the timing is wrong. TJ wrote his famous letter
to Walsh in 1818, yet the "Liber Facetiarum" is dated 1809. I am unable to
reconcile these facts.

Was there a previous collection of Jefferson's anecdotes on Franklin??

On Mar 8, 2018 3:36 PM, "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> On Mar 8, 2018, at 1:52 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
wrote:
>
> Mark Mandel wrote:
>> No, I take it back. "D.F." is in the source.
> . . .
>> And presumably
>>
>> Anecdotes of D.F.  ->  Anecdotes of B.F.
>>
>> Yes?
>
> "Anecdotes of D. F." is specified in the text of "Liber Facetiarum". I
> did not see any other matches within Google Books for the phrase
> "Anecdotes of D. F."
>
> "D. F." might refer to "Dr. Franklin", but I think that would be an
> odd initialism. As you imply "B. F." makes more sense for "Benjamin
> Franklin”.
>

Yes, you’d think the reference would at least be to “Dr. F”, celebrated
inventor of bifocals, kite-borne electricity, and the dunk.
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org