[Ads-l] Quote: The most exciting phrase in science is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny' (Attributed to Isaac Asimov)

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Back in August 2015 Peter Morris posted to this list about the remark
in the subject line. He referred to a March 2015 Quote Investigator
article. Peter found an intriguing snippet match in the Google Books
database with a circa 1965 date.

https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2015-August/138746.html

Recently, I employed the enormously valuable controlled digital
lending mechanism of the Internet Archive to verify the details of the
citation.

Also, Bill Mullins contacted me off-list and told me that researcher
Steven Cooper recently released an updated version of his
comprehensive bibliography of Isaac Asimov. Cooper mentioned that the
quotation in the subject line has not been found in the writings of
Asimov. See footnote 1 on page 8 in Catalogue of Asimov's Fiction.

http://stevenac.net/asimov/Bibliography.htm

The Quote Investigator article has been updated and the new text
should be visible within 48 hours.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/03/02/eureka-funny/

[Begin acknowledgements]
Great thanks to Matthew Johnson and Laura Jones whose inquiries led QI
to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Thanks to
Bonnie Taylor-Blake and Ben Zimmer who identified the 1987 Usenet
citation. Further thanks to Peter Morris who identified the 1965
citation. Also, thanks to Bill Mullins who pointed to the remark in
the 2023 bibliography. Additional thanks to the discussants in the
Usenet newsgroups and the Snopes forum.
[End acknowledgements]

Garson

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