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We Were Wrong! (and
we also left out some stuff) Corrections, Updates, and Comments The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived
These are the changes that have been
found for us, so far, and our comments. The first section goes to the facts, items we got wrong,
and things we left out. This is the
one you should check if you want to be double-sure of a reference, or know
how bad we felt, or the reasons behind a choice you may disagree with. The
first sub-section contains those that are awaiting the next printing, all the
rest are in alphabetical order by character. The first printing in which such
corrections were incorporated was the 5th. A third sub-section covers
everything we missed -- oversights, things that are now out of date because
of recent events, misstatements that can't be corrected without major trauma
to the pagination, and things we simply discovered too late to include. The second section is the same thing without discussion,
and in page order; scroll down past the triple blue bars. We've left space for
the third item, a blog, with comments and arguments as they come in, whatever
we feel like posting, and probably won't include your obsession with Harold's
purple crayon. We may put that on
another page, but if we do, we'll give you a link or the page address. The fourth section
will hold articles that didn't get used, and whatever we happened to think of
that relates to the book. We don't
have anything there now, but when we do we'll tell you here, maybe we'll add
our articles on Madame Bovary, Winnie the Pooh, Bugs Bunny, and our expanded
articles on Hamlet, Robin Hood, and so on.
Because this is a cumulative list, you'll only see all these items if you've got a first printing. If you don't see the error on your page, it's already been fixed.
Meanwhile here are a few Lessons learned in our many mistakes:
Section FIRST -- CORRECTIONS and our comments (and stuff we left out); Listed by printing number, within that Alphabetically, by name. To determine the printing number, turn to the page after the Title page. At the bottom will be a string of numbers similar to the following: 10 11
12 13 14
WBC/RRD 20 19 18
17 16 15
14 13 12 In this example, the left-most "10" indicates this copy was printed in 2010, and the right-most "12" indicates that this is the 12th printing. This way of indicating which printing, and what year, ceased to apply with the 16th printing about 2016. After that point, the printing and year indications are no longer present.  1A These are the errors remaining in the 17th printing, the most recent we have received. For all previous errors (correct by the 14th printing), scroll down to section 1B. For comments, new developments, fine points useful to settle bar disputes (but not your tab), and additional stuff we didn't have space for, scroll down to section 1C.
Marlboro Man page 276, The Marlboro Man, essay line 18 and 19, (page lines 27 and 28) (4th and 5th from the bottom) WAS Between 20 and 30 percent of the U.S. population now smokes, down from about 40 percent of the population in the
Change to: Between 10 and 20 percent of the U.S. population now smokes, down from about 40 percent of the population in the
Reason: smoking percentage has dropped in recent years, cited in 2022 as 13 percent (the CDC adding extra precision as 12.5% of adults in 2020). The CDC's data support our initial claim; they say 20.9% of adults smoked in 2005.
Nancy Drew Page 249, line 27 (6th from the bottom): Not: been two television series Use: been three television series A new series was added in 2019.
King Midas Page 28, several instances: spelling of the name of the flute-playing challenger of Apollo: Not: Marysas Use: Marsyas.
Lady Chatterley Page 246, line 20 Not: principles Use: principals The context makes this clear: we're talking about people, not ideas. This was only just discovered, thanks to the thorough reading of the book being conducted in an ESL class (conducted virtually, thanks to the pandemic).
Madame
Butterfly Page
197 line 8 (4th line from bottom) Is:
and in 1906 Use:
and in 1904 After the disastrous 1904 opening, the
opera re-debuted and was further modified in 1906, the current version. If you're listening to CD highlights, you
might not appreciate the changes.
The first act was too long, but the story couldn't have been much
different -- the final version is still close to John Luthor Long's story.
It's only the final tweaks that appeared in 1906, and that should
matter to you only if you're going to sing one of the lead roles and
need a copy of the music.
The Ugly DucklingPage 172 . .
. 1844 correct to . . . 1843 The collection of
fairy tales, Nye Aventyr, Book 1, which included "The Ugly
Duckling" and "The Nightingale," was published in
December 1844, again in 1849 and 1862, and about 30 billion times since
then. The Andersen Center of the University of Southern Denmark says the
Duckling was first published 1843 -- November 11, 1843. They don't say
what time. Actually, the title is "Den Grimme Aelling,"
because it's written in Danish.
All these have been corrected by the 14th printing: Mary
Richards Page
252 line 4 not:
Candace Bergen use: Candice (i, not a) This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing. G.I.
Joe
Page
143, Line last, G.I. Joe Was: The United States
has never had a presi- dent or vice-president or
secretary of state Joe. Correct
to: ... a presi- dent Joe, and only one V.P. Joe
(Biden, as of 2009).
The full sentence should read: "The United States has never had a President
Joe, and only one V.P. Joe (Biden, as of 2009). This underscores the problem of writing about the changing worlds of entertainment and politics. Never say "never." The 12th printing repeats this last
paragraph of p. 143 onto p. 144,
and shifts all the text down, cutting off from the bottom
of page 144 onto the top of page 145 This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing. [ The twelve-inch doll went
out of ] production in 1976, and the
version that reappeared in 1982 was 3¾ inches tall, perhaps reflecting the
downsizing of the American military, but more likely because the new Star
Wars figures were that height. There
have been several hundred Joes in the action figure line, most of them the
smaller size. Typically, each figure
is made for only a single year. The
2004 run [ had almost 200 Joe characters, from Vietnam door gunner to Action Sailor # 16.]
Lady Chatterley We were consistent, and made the same spelling mistake everywhere: her name (the name of her husband) is spelled with an "e" before the "y". This misspelling appears on the following pages:
Page xii -- the Table of Contents, at the very bottom of that page Page 9 -- the Ranked Order entry (#15), 1 line from the bottom of the page Pages 245-247 -- the essay itself, a total of four instances. These were scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and are certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Mickey
Mouse Page
263 line 3 : Not: (Wayne All-)bright followed. Use: (Wayne All-)wine followed. Wayne Allwine followed Wayne Allwine voiced Mickey from 1977 to 2009, though reports of his last work have been difficult to place, due to the lag between the work and the cartoon's release date. He died on 5-14-2009, the third voice of Mickey Mouse. This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Batman Page 113, lines 2 and 3 of last
paragraph (text lines 22, 23): omit "(creator of Green Lantern)" Nodell's granddaughter wrote to remind
us that Nodell should be the only one recognized as GL's creator. This
was a copying error, "a creator" condensed to
"creator," both versions
wrong. Martin Nodell came up with the
Green Lantern, and worked with editor Sheldon Mayer and writer Bill Finger. Nodell used the pen name Mart Dellon. The first issue was credited to Dellon and
Finger, and soon, the people working on the Lantern included Sci-Fi notables
Henry Kuttner and Alfred Bester. But
their hero was not the Lantern of the 60s, Hal Jordan. The first GL, Alan Scott, was
invulnerable to metal, but could be knocked out by a wooden club. Find his story republished in The Great
Comic Book Heroes, Feiffer, 1965.
Some tales appear in a DC reissue hardcover we didn't buy. Lesson: never paraphrase while taking notes. Quote exactly, or photocopy. This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Gatsby,
Jay -- The Great Gatsby Page
162 line 18 on Jay's family origins
... is: poor family who still lives in San
Francisco. use:
poor farming family in North Dakota This is the effect of the charm of Jay Gatz, who said his relatives were from the Midwest -- "San Francisco." This is corrected in the 5th printing.
HAL
9000 Page
237 HAL9000 line 7 not:
Robbie use:
"The Robot" Robbie the Robot did appear in a Lost in Space episode, as a guest star, but he's a slightly different type from the Jupiter 2's robot. Robbie's huge egg-like clear top is distinctive. He starred with Ann Francis in Forbidden Planet, and appeared in a Twilight Zone episode. "The Robot" has a much smaller head. And a shorter list of acting credentials. "Danger, Will Robinson!" This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Kirk and Spock Page 303 line 1 Not: 1967 to 1969 use: 1966 to 1969 Defective math. Star Trek ran three seasons starting in 1966, but each season spreads across two years. 66-67. 67-68. 68-69. This is corrected in the 5th printing.
G. I. Joe Page
144 line 10 not
Bill Maulden, use Mauldin (i, not e) This is corrected in the 12th printing.
Norman Bates Page
227 paragraph 2 line 12, 8th from bottom Not: the next morning use: later that night Marion Crane showered a little while after she checked in that night. Big mistake. A look at the hall clocks shows the attack time approximately 11PM, and Norman's cleanup is done in the early hours of the morning. This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Paul Bunyan Page
138, last word of Sidebar Not: bases use: base This was pointed out to us by a friend's daughter.
We've seen a photo of the Paul Bunyan trophy; the dimensions are correct, but
there is only one base (which unfortunately looks more like a 30-gallon
garbage can than a tree stump). This is corrected in the 7th printing.
Perry Mason Page
297 paragraph 2 line 7 Not: accused use: convicted This is corrected in the 5th printing.
Saint Swithin in Who's Fictional?
Page
258 line 26, Not:
St. Swithens' Day Correct to: St. Swithin's Day It's St. Swithin, not Saint Swithens This is corrected in the 12th printing.
Saint
Valentine Page 51, line 5 of the article Not
: However, none of them ever made it
to sainthood use: ... none of them ever made it to stardom This
is corrected in the 11th printing. William
Tell Page 60 We removed the sidebar reference lines 27-8: Things in Switzerland have changed since
then The link we had originally included, http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=2300, may not exist now. Websites are subject to change. The Swiss began dropping their historical certainty about William Tell a long time ago. An officially approved Swiss school text of 1901 cautioned students that "all peoples embellish stories of their nation's origin" (original in French, Henri Cuchet), and hinted that there was only a shred of truth in the story. What the Swiss told tourists is another matter. This is corrected in the 5th printing.
Stuff we missed or misstated slightly, and new material:
Mammy Mammy's alter ego, the iconic Aunt Jemima, has been cancelled (retired) by the owner, the Pearl Milling Co., which as of 2022 markets the pancake/waffle mix under their own name. To reflect this change, on page 91, lines 3, 4, 5, tense changes to past. Were: begins
to dissolve, Mammy retains
her well-earned reputation. The
modern
incarnation is
a prim woman whose tightly curled hair has
a mature touch of gray. She looks
a bit like Mrs. Change to: began to dissolve, Mammy retained her well-earned reputation. Her
last
incarnation was
a prim woman whose tightly curled
Nancy Drew Nancy Drew continues into the 21st century, with a new TV series in 2019 and 2020 (continuing?), and in bookstores a series of over 40 reissues of the 1930s hardcovers, Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, plus a paperback series, The Nancy Drew Diaries, started in 2013 and already past volume 19 when we checked in 2020. We're not going to attempt to find out how many readings are available in the various audio formats. Nor will we count up her appearance in comics, podcasts, webpages, stained glass windows, etc.
Barbie Page 281 side bar "Barbie has at least two videos." Replace with "Barbie has at least ten videos, and the list grows." Two videos is a gross
understatement. The full list is
twenty-one as of October, 2011, plus the movie "Toy Story3;" check
at www.imdb.com.
In Mid-October, 2011, we were astonished to read of a tattooed Barbie, 7400 of which were sold to ADULTS for $50 each. Tokidoki Barbie, which is NOT available from Mattel.com's Barbie Boutique, as of this writing, has black tattoos over her upper chest and one arm, and an off-the shoulder blouse. This is a sort of black magic vodka Barbie, or punk geisha Barbie, a role model for mid-twentyish Hollywood hairstylists and Greenwich village performance artists, not for most of the aggressively wholesome beach and date and career situations we're used to associating with our most synthetic national cheerleader.
What's next?
Our favorite, though is the much-discussed and anticipated National Political Barbie, in a red-white-and-blue power suit. Her knowledge of the world is confined to half a dozen plastic friends, and perhaps ten play sets of less than two square feet each, but she carries no known diseases, and is capable of international shipment. Granted, those are not positive qualities for national office, but our standards have dropped over the last 50 years.
It turns out that Barbie was not the first doll of her kind. in December 1941, the NY Times carried an ad for a realistically dressed 12-inch doll of a young adult, a miniature plastic manikin apparently named "Susanne", $1.59, and patterns and enough cloth "to start a wardrobe." She looked rather prim and somewhat Germanic, unfortunate considering the news on the front page of the Times that day. And girls had to make, not buy, the doll's clothes.
Batman Page 113-114 -- No Error -- NEW OFF THE PRESS, Fall 2011 With the restart of 52 comics of the DC universe in late 2011, a new Robin was added -- Damien Wayne, Bruce Wayne's son. Batman and Robin #1, dated November 2011, actual release 14 September, 2011. Also included in this revamping the titles BATMAN (2 Sep actual release), NIGHTWING (Sep 2; looks like Dick Grayson continues the good fight), BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT (28 September 2008) and the related comics BATGIRL, BATWING, BATWOMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE, JUSTICE LEAGUE INT'L, BIRDS OF PREY, CATWOMAN, LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, DETECTIVE COMICS, TEEN TITANS.... Recently (late 2014) a television prequel was introduced, a limited series entitled "Gotham." And you just know that Bats will be making guest appearances with Superman, Green Lantern, and others.
Figaro Page 194, line 7 -- clocks vs. watches "years of age he invented a new clock mechanism..." No error: More often noted was his involvement in (analog) watches, which are now more common than analog clocks, but Caron earned a moniker that has been translated as "clockmaker to the king." And clocks were more common than watches at that time. The invention (an escapement) applies to watches and clocks, and is probably still in use. The more generic term might be "timekeeping", to embrace both clocks and watches. Page 194, lines 9-10 -- minimal error "took her family name, Beaumarchais." This is a quick way of putting it. Beuamarchais was the name of the family that had owned a manor purchased by the lady's late husband, Pierre-Augustin Franquet. Page 194, line 11 "Count ... Beaumarchais" Close enough. He purchased formal nobility, but "Count" is more of a generic honorific, because he did not acquire a specific title. We should call him Count Beaumarchais, if only to parallel Figaro's master, Count Almaviva. Page 194, line 12 "himself took up writing in support of revolutionary causes." Not by intent: Beaumarchais fought for his own acceptance, and put his support for the American revolution in the form of arms shipments. His first writing was in defense of himself, and his writing career began with skits and then into public performance: The Two Friends, Eugenie, The Barber ... and Figaro. use "himself wrote plays, some of which embodied revolutionary ideas." Page 194, line 23 "Ain't much" is a colloquial translation, correct in its meaning. This is the version used in performances by the Ho-Ho-Kus Bathroom Renovation and Theater Company.
G.
I. Joe
Page
146 add to 'Did you know' sidebar: An
8" figure has been/is also produced This is a major product line, and was so even
before the 2009 movie; the
"Cobra" wars soldiers are about this size. They're all very muscular, and look more
like Rocky Balboa's Russian opponent than Bill Mauldin's soldiers. Maybe we'll ask the Commissioner to look
into it, once the Pete Rose business is settled. We deleted the Sidebar reference to full title of : The Short Stories of Saki (H. H. Munro), another writer-soldier killed in a World War (I), who wrote "The Toys of Peace."
The 12-inch action figure is not out of production, though you may find half as many enemy evildoer-dolls as GIs in that size. A few of these Joe characters are still sold in 2014, and we discretely measured one Joe in a toy store in 2013. He's described by Hasbro as 12-inches, but it's closer to 11-and-a-half. Mathematical rounding rules allow him to be described as 12-inch. If you remove his hair and boots, we suspect he's closer to 11.3" -- but we didn't have a heated scalpel with us, and anyway, the store would have objected.
Hansel and Gretel We've just gotten the new Zipes translation of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and this story is a little simpler: the kids find the witch's house on their own, no bird involved. And it's made of plain bread. However, the family was close to starvation, and when the two get back with the crone's jewels, they learn their mother has died. They don't ask why, they don't ask to visit the grave -- and as far as we know, they don't check the oven.
Kermit the Frog Page 310, last paragraph -- not an error, but the situation has changed: Original: and the entire Muppet cast. But business deals don't always go through, and don't always last. If it's true, don't fret. They've gotten out of worse predicaments... Could Use: and the entire Muppet cast. But such business arrangements don't always last. Take heart, and don't fret. They've gotten out of worse predicaments... At the time, Michael Eisner
was viewed by some as Disney's evil henchman, and the Muppets being sold off
as property seemed to be another of their adventure plots. But the merger went through, and despite
the death of originator Jim Henson yet another Muppet movie is expected. See also Who Met Whom
King Arthur There were two Arthurs in British culture. The real one was known as Artorius, or Duke Artorius, and there's very little information on him. The Arthur we know of Holy Grail fame doesn't seem to be based on anything other than the name of the real hero, and many stories were written centuries later, not from documents of the 500s.
Kirk and Spock Note: Page 302: The shuttle Enterprise was an engineless glider with a streamlined tail. No Klingons were sighted during the test flight. That we know of.
Marlboro
Man Page 277 line 10-11 bacco's kick, is a powerfully addictive
substance. Of all cig- arette smokers trying to quit in any
year, only 1 in 40 succeed. Replace with: bacco's kick, is a powerfully addictive
substance. Of cigarette smokers trying to quit in any year, a small
fraction succeed. While
we have no reason to believe that our original figure is wrong (1 in 40),
other studies have been done, and the quitting rate without drugs has been
reported as high as 17%. This is a
good reason for not extracting a single data point from a specific year. A general statement is much more likely to
stay accurate. Overall,
the proportion of smokers in the U.S. has dropped considerably over the last
50 years. With the help of the new
methods and new quitting aids, the smoking-cessation success rate has been
talked of as being close to 50% -- but all statistics depend on the people
studied: how long they've been smoking, and why they now want to quit -- if
they do want to quit. And the
success rate for any group of people at 3 months is not expected to be same
as the rate at 1 year, or five years.
If you claim victory after a week, then a huge number of people quit
smoking, some of them dozens of times. Since the US smoking population has gone down by about half, you could say half the smokers have managed to quit, though a cynic might say that half of them have died from smoking.
Odysseus Page 25 line 6 -- (Homer's Odyssey, which dates from about) 800 B.C.E. Cliff Notes says 700 B.C.E., but we said "about 800" -- that's OK, both are estimates. The Trojan War was about 1200 B.C.E. -- another "about." The war can be dated from artifacts and comments made by other civilizations, who knew something was up. The poem is another matter. Roughly as much time had passed between the Trojan War and Homer as between Henry VIII and us. Page 25 line 12-13 "The deity [Poseidon] did
so [punish Odysseus] with storms that resulted in a ten-year journey of a few
hundred miles home." Yes, that's correct, but if you want to get picky,
Poseidon wasn't the only one to blame.
The crew released a bag of winds, blowing them far off course, and
Zeus caused the second storm, which landed Odysseus on Calypso's Island --
where he stayed seven years. In
another incident, the ship is becalmed near an island where the cattle of the
sun were kept, and Odysseus' men, running out of food, opted to eat these
beasts, which was a very bad decision indeed. Poseidon caused the storm that shipwrecked Odysseus on Phaecia/
Phoenecia, but we don't need to repeat that, since he's been blamed for
storms already. Could be revised to: The deity [Poseidon] did so [punish Odysseus] with
storms that resulted in a ten-year delay in the journey of a few hundred
miles home. 14 characters available on that line, 13 added; OK Page 25 line 19 "The Phoenicians saved him. .
. " -- no error -- Phoenicians, Phaecians, pretty much the same -- This is OK, though they didn't specifically save Odysseus' life, they saved him a very long dangerous walk by sending him home in one of their ships. If you've seen photographs of the area, you know that Greece is well corrugated with crags and hills, which accounts for the independence of the many Greek city-states. Travel was physically difficult. A land route would have taken Odysseus through the freshly desolate and probably dangerous remnants of Troy. So yes, they did save his life. Might be better as : "The Phoenicians aided him" but let's not quibble. Page 25 --
6 lines from the bottom -- (line 26 and) line 27 -- no error -- "Pressured by her suitors, she [Penelope]
declared she would marry the man who could bend an extremely stiff bow that
belonged to Odysseus." But a better phrasing might be: "Pressured by
her suitors, she [Penelope] declared she would marry the man who bent, and
shot best with, a stiff bow that belonged to Odysseus." FYI: There was more to Penelope's demand -- the suitor had to shoot an arrow through 12 rings. But yes, you do have to bend the bow in order to use it, and that required an enormous amount of strength -- or the foresight to use a different bowstring. None of the suitors had either quality. Only Odysseus was able to do that. How did Odysseus know that HE would be able to bend -- let alone fire -- his own bow? He'd been away for 20 years, and much of the last 10 were spend in the bed of a witch. He's 20 years older -- but not 20 years more physically fit. Wouldn't Penelope (and her husband) have been red-faced if the bow's owner couldn't accomplish her challenge? Of course, we know he had help from certain gods. That's always an advantage.
If you really, REALLY, want to know: The 12 rings have also been translated as 12 axes -- but how do you shoot an arrow through an axe? It appears the axes were made with loops for attaching to the belt or some such anchor on the body (an Internet search revealed photos showing bronze axe heads with little loops) . The loops must have been at the axe end, so the head wouldn't scrape your leg (or worse) while you walked, and thus if the handle was stuck in the ground, the loop remained at the top. If the loop is a tenth the size of the axe-head, that's a pretty exact target. Even a single ring is a challenge -- but 12 in a row? Perhaps Penelope was simply taking no chances.
Peter Pan Page 179 line 12 was: hospital has contracted with use: hospital commissioned line 14 was: to Peter Pan, due to appear in 2006 use: Peter Pan in Scarlet, which appeared in
2006 (plus an additional comma at the end of line 13.) Our first printing appeared before the Peter Pan
sequel appeared, and we felt uncomfortable accepting as a fact something that
hadn't happened yet; that sequel is now an accomplished fact.. Robin
Hood If there was such a man, he certainly wouldn't have given out his real name and location, or the names of his comrades. A century after Robin was supposed to have prowled Sherwood, there were real people who gave their name as Robinhood -- perhaps as a tribute, a trade name, or a snub of the authorities.
Romeo
and Juliet Page 186, text line 3: (Romeo) sixteen years of
age, she thirteen Shakespeare defines Juliet as two weeks short of
14, and Romeo's age is not given. The
two lovers die at age 16 in Boccaccio's tale of Girolamo and Salvestra (Decameron,
Day 4, 8th story), and the two lovers are 18 and 15 in an earlier tale of
Ippolito and Leonore. In
Shakespeare's direct source, Arthur Brooke's poem, Romeus and Juliet,
Juliet is 16 and Romeus is a youth "Upon whose tender chin, as yet, no
manlike beard there grew." Keeping
the age difference at 2-3 years, Romeo is therefore 15 or 16 -- and 16 is
more consistent with Romeo's prowess at swordplay. "Romeo, Romeo, how old art thou, Romeo?" See Branden Books: Romeo and Juliet: Original Text of Masuccio, Da Porto, Bandello, Shakespeare
(1992). and Olin H. Moore, University of Ohio Press, The Legend of Romeo and Juliet.
Saint
Valentine Of the three Valentines we listed, one was only a
Pope, and we doubted the existence of the other two. The Valentine who lived in Africa is
largely a mystery, that's all we found on him. Valentine of Terni (then called Interamna) was an actual bishop and a Saint. He may also have been the priest Valentine
who was killed in Rome, sixty miles away.
The Valentines of Rome and Interamna were executed on the same road,
and on the same day of the year, either due to a perverse Roman sense of
symmetry, or because they were one person.
These two men (or man) are officially recognized in references such as
The Catholic Encyclopedia, and
Butler's Lives of the Saints. Our celebrated Valentine may have been the
fictional side of the priest of Rome, or a composite character. Aside: in the Roman era, there does not seem to be much distinction between a martyr and a saint.
Siegfried Page
202 line 7: the sidebar: not:
staged together as... use: first staged together as The Ring of the Nibelungen in 1876 (The Siegfried/ Ring operas were
staged together in other years, and in recent years, annually.) We should, to be fair, note that World Wars I and II were principally fought between Germanic countries: Germany, France (a Germanic tribe, the Franks) and England (two Germanic tribes, the Angles and Saxons) -- and the United States (descended from England in government, and England and Germany, in early population.) Think of these nations from an Indian, Arab, or African viewpoint, and you'll see the point. Hitler's persecutions and war make Germany the standout.
Sindbad The Sailor Pages 94-5 Title -- One thing we left out, which you'll discover when you read the tales: Sindbad is a traveling trader, not a seaman, and only in modern film is he depicted as a captain, commander, or pirate. This is not an error, since the modern translations of the Arabian Nights refers to him as the Sindbad the Seaman, Sindbad the Sailor, Sindibad of the Sea, etc. Lines 25-6
25 ..."The name Sindbad means "traveler" in
26 Sind, a dialect of India." Not India. Should be: Sindh, now a part of Pakistan. Sindh is now part of
Pakistan. Sind (now spelled Sindh)
was thought of as part of India -- the whole region -- when Galland, Burton,
and Lane did their famous translations.
Geographically, it's still called the Indian subcontinent. As a language, it's called not Sind, but Sindhi, and although it may be dialect to us, it is regarded as a separate language, and is now written in a variant of Arabic script. FYI: Cultural factors influence the meaning of the term, and
Sind-abad suggests Sindh + abadi, or ancestry, someone from Sindh, but
without named town or family, and therefore a wanderer. The translation
"traveler" is credited to a professor of North African
Folklore. He noted that Sind-bad
doesn't work in Arabic. Sir Richard
Burton's footnote says that Sind-abad doesn't work in Persian, though ábád is
a word for region or habitation in that language. He noted that the name form
-----abad occurs in names from India
However, "abadi" is an Urdu word for ancestry, habitation or
village, and is seen in the town names Islamabad, Hyderabad, etc. Dr. Mazolph (Germany), editor of The Arabian Nights Reader,
2006, Wayne State University Press,
Detroit, ISBN 0-8143-3259-5, told us that translating Sind+bad "leads the wrong way," and confirmed
Burton's rejection of a Persian construction. So it's not an Arabic name, not a
Persian name, but maybe possibly farther east. "Sindhu" is a Hindustani/Sanskrit word for Ocean, and we suspect a multi-lingual pun. Perhaps our seafarer's name can be misconstrued in a dozen languages.
Sidebars we didn't have space for:
Page 94:
3rd line from bottom (lines 27, 28) Sindbad's seven trips each begin with him, a
merchant embarking on a journey and becoming
shipwrecked. And the stories .
. . . No. Mostly shipwrecked. replace with: Sinbad’s seven
trips each begin with him, a merchant, embarking on a
sea journey with other traders. And
the stories . . . . In the first and second voyages the "fun"
begins when he's left behind (accidentally, so he claims). In the third voyage his ship is beached
intact, and then attacked and dismantled. Page 95 Though our plot summary is generally correct, we
seem to have been too caught up in his adventures, and mixed some details
with Greek and Iroquois myth. We'll put that to good use later, and write a
story in which Sindbad finds an 800-foot turtle and gets Donald Trump to
build a hotel on it. Here's a complete rewrite of page 95:
SupermanPage 270-271 -- No Error -- NEW OFF THE PRESS, Fall 2011 With
the restart of 52 comics of the DC universe in late 2011, a new
"Superboy" was added, a Kryptonian-Human clone; SUPERBOY #1,
November 2011, actual release 14 Sep 2011, and of course SUPERMAN #1,
28 Sep 2011. Also included in this revamping of the titles: ACTION COMICS,
JUSTICE LEAGUE, LEGION OF SUPERHEROES, SUPERGIRL.... And
we have to expect that the Superman family will make guest appearances (would
YOU say "You're not welcome here" to Superman?) with Batman, Green
Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, and others. The Ugly DucklingPage 172 According
to three translations (references on request), the duckling is not turned out
by the kindly crone, he leaves on his own, and later he flees a farmhouse
because the children frighten him, not because he frightens them. Text lines 14-15: However, she soon turned him out because he could
not lay eggs. Correct to: (lines 14-15) However, when he found he was expected to lay eggs
and give up swimming, he left.
Text lines 18-20 : frightened his children. As a result, he was again
turned out and had to spend the rest of the hard winter in
misery and pri- vation. Correct line 18 to was frightened by his children. The duckling fled the farmhouse
The (second) rescuer (line 17) is, in Danish, a "Bondemand:" Bonde = farm, so he's a farm-man or farmhand, and the presence of an open pail of milk is enough to establish that it's a farmhouse. We would like it to be a warm house, but that's not necessarily reasonable in the 1840s, and it isn't stated -- warm enough to let him revive, and the milk doesn't freeze, which means it's over 35F.
The first rescuer (line 13) is an old woman who wants duck eggs, but she's patient, and never hints at the sharpened duck-cleaver our author-friend Ed Rand would have foreshadowed in the hands of a villainous poultry-dealer. The duckling has been there three weeks, and he decides to leave, mainly because he misses swimming
A friend questioned whether the duckling was really "ugly" or if he was simply "different." Yes, he's "ugly" specified in the title (we translated some of the Danish from a text on the website of The University of Southern Denmark) and this is reinforced through the story. It amounts to the same thing. A kid will easily tease anyone who's different -- too tall, too fat, four-eyed, etc. -- and "You're so ugly!" is always an insult. This was echoed by our contributor and colleague E. F. Watkins, who posted a commentary 19 July 2011 @ www.efwatkins.com/blog/ The abuse the duckling suffers is certainly relevant to the bullying issues that have surfaced in the past couple of years. Don't tease, don't dis.
Who Met Whom? Page 206. below line 11 - No Error -- but there were
many such meetings, and here are a few more:. In the Star Trek episode
"Who Mourns for Adonis?" Apollo meets Kirk and Spock, and several
other of the crew, including a lady we'll call Lieutenant Cleavage. The god-human romance doesn't do nearly as
well as Kermit and Miss Piggy's. In
"The Muppets' Wizard of Oz" (2005), we expected the two stars to
play the lead roles, but no, Kermit plays the Scarecrow, and meets Dorothy
and the Wizard, both played by human actors.
Piggy plays the good witch, Glinda.
Not much of a part. Maybe
they'll get the leads in the Muppet version of "Who's Afraid of Virginia
Woolf?" Kermit played Scrooge's clerk, Bob Cratchit (1992), and so did Mickey Mouse (1983), so they both met Ebenezer. Betty Boop played Snow White in the 30s, but few people consider that acting. Betty never steps out of her own character. Dracula and his son met quite a few characters at "The Monster Mash", but sorry, we don't have the full guest list. Everybody's met John Doe, or walked right past without noticing him.
Section SECOND -- Listed by page order -- ERRORS ONLY -- line by line
Page xii -- the Table of Contents, at the very bottom of that page Not:: Chatterly Use: Chatterley This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Page 9 -- the Ranked Order listing, near the bottom of that page Not:: Chatterly Use: Chatterley This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Page 28, several instances: spelling of the name of the flute-playing challenger of Apollo: Not: Marysas Use: Marsyas.
Page 51, line 5 of the article Saint Valentine: we
had: However, none of them ever made
it to sainthood use: ... none of them ever made it to stardom This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Page
60, in the William Tell essay remove the sidebar reference lines
27-8: use: (blank, just omit) Omit : http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=2300. This is corrected in the 5th printing.
Page 91, in the Mammy essay (referencing Aunt Jemima) lines 3, 4, 5, tense changes to past Were: begins
to dissolve, Mammy retains
her well-earned reputation. The
modern
incarnation is
a prim woman whose tightly curled hair has
a mature touch of gray. She looks
a bit like Mrs. Change to: began to dissolve, Mammy retained her well-earned reputation. Her
last
incarnation was
a prim woman whose tightly curled
Pages. 94-5 of the Sindbad the Sailor essay Line 26 Was: Sind, a dialect of India. Use: Sindh, an area now part of
Pakistan. Line 28 Was: embarking
on a journey and becoming shipwrecked.
And the Use: embarking on a sea journey with other traders. And the Page 95 To view the corrected page as a whole, see the table box in the first section of this page, under
Sindbad. However, due to technical limitations, the box does not show the
correct number of lines nor words per line. To check line by line, use the
following enumeration: Line 3 Was: Two of the
stories recapitulate Middle Eastern creation Replace with: One of the
stories reverses an ancient Egyptian creation Line 4 was: myths in which the earth was born when
the backs of giant Replace with: myth, in which the earth emerged from
the oceans. Sindbad Line 5 was: animals emerged from the oceans. In one
he lands on an Eden- Replace with: lands on an Eden-line island that is
really the back of a huge Line 6 was: like island that is really the back of
a huge whale, and in the other, Replace with: fish. It submerges, taking down
everyone on it. The merchant Line 7 was: he visits a continent that is the back
of an enormous cow: Replace with survives by using a large wooden bowl
as a lifeboat. Line 9 was: Sindbad lands on an island inhabited by
a one-eyed giant who Replace with: Sindbad and others land on an island
inhabited by a giant who Line 10 was: eats some of his fellow passengers. The
survivors blind the gi- Replace with: eats some of them. The survivors blind
the giant with hot irons Line 11 was: ant with a burning timber and try to
escape on a boat they Replace with: and escape on a boat they have built.
But other giants hurl Line 12 was: have built. But other giants hurl large
tocks at them and kill Replace with: large rocks at them and kill many of
the men as they flee. Line 13 was: many of the men as they are leaving. New: Sentence and paragraph are
concluded on line 12. Make this a blank line for now. This will be corrected
by instructions at the bottom of page 95 corrections. Line 14 was: On a different
trip, he marries the daughter of a king. She Replace with: On a different
trip, a king provides Sindbad with a wife. She Line 15 was: dies, and is regaled with all her
jewels for burial. However, by Replace with: dies, and is arrayed with her jewels
for burial. However, by Line 18 was: chasm along with the body of his wife
and enough bread and Replace with: chasm along with the body of his wife and
enough bread and wa- * the word "along" can be omitted if
space requires Line 19 was: water for him to survive for a few
days. A week later, a woman Replace with: ter for him to survive for a few days.
Several days later, a woman Line 20 was: is placed in the cave with her dead
husband who is decked out Replace with: is placed in the cave with her dead
husband. Sindbad kills her Line 21 was: in all his jewels. Sindbad kills her
and steals her food and water Replace with: and steals her food and water, and also
her gold ornaments and Line 22 was: as well as the gems. After that, he
kills others placed in the cave Replace with: gems. After that, he kills others
placed into the cave Line 27 was: On his last
trip, he marries yet another daughter of a king. Replace with On his last
trip, he marries a daughter of yet another king. When these changes are made to the entire page 95,
any blank lines should be removed. This will restore proper indent format. Page 113, lines
26-27, in the Batman article, near the bottom, Not created by artist Bob Kane and
writer Bill Finger (creator of Green Lantern). Use created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Page
138, last word of Sidebar to Paul Bunyan essay Not: bases use: base This was pointed out to us by a friend's daughter.
We've seen a photo of the Paul Bunyan trophy; the dimensions are correct, but
there is only one base (which unfortunately looks more like a 30-gallon
garbage can than a tree stump). This is corrected in the 7th printing.
Page
143, last line, G. I. Joe essay dent or vice-president or secretary of state Joe. Correct
to: The United States has never had
a presi- dent Joe, and only one V.P. Joe (Biden, as of 2009).
The 12th printing repeats this last
paragraph of p. 143 onto p. 144,
and shifts all the text down, cutting off from the bottom
of page 144 onto the top of page 145 This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
[ The twelve-inch doll went
out of ] production in 1976, and the
version that reappeared in 1982 was 3¾ inches tall, perhaps reflecting the
downsizing of the American military, but more likely because the new Star
Wars figures were that height. There
have been several hundred Joes in the action figure line, most of them the
smaller size. Typically, each figure
is made for only a single year. The
2004 run [ had almost 200 Joe characters, from Vietnam door gunner to Action Sailor # 16.] Page.
144 line 10 not
Bill Maulden, use Mauldin (i, not e) This is corrected in the 12th printing.
Page
146 added to 'Did you know' sidebar: An 8" figure has been/is also produced
Page
162 line 18 on (The Great Gatsby) Jay's family origins ... is: poor family who still lives in San
Francisco. use:
poor farming family in North Dakota This
is corrected in the 5th printing.
Page
172 line 5 (The Ugly Duckling) is:
1844 use: 1843 Page
172 lines 14-15 is:
However, she soon turned him out
because he could not lay
eggs. use: However,
when he found he was expected to lay eggs and give up swimming, he left. Page
172 line 18 is: frightened his children. As a result,
he was again turned out use: was frightened by his children. The duckling fled the farmhouse
Page
179 line 12 was: hospital has contracted with use: hospital commissioned line 14 was: to Peter Pan, due to appear in 2006 use: Peter Pan in Scarlet, which appeared in
2006 (plus an additional comma at the end of line 13.) Page
197 (Madame Butterfly) line 8 (4th
line from bottom) Is:
and in 1906 Use: and in 1904
Page
202 (Siegfried) line 7: the sidebar: not:
staged together as... use: first staged together as The Ring of the Nibelungen in 1876
Page
227 (Norman Bates article) paragraph 2 line 12, 8th from bottom Not: the next morning use: later that night This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Page
237 (HAL9000) line 7 not:
Robbie use: The Robot This is corrected in the 11th printing.
Page 245-247 -- (Lady Chatterley essay) four misspelling instances Not:: Chatterly Use: Chatterley These were scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and are certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Page
252 (Mary Richards essay) line 4 not:
Candace Bergen use: Candice (i, not a) This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
Page 258 (Who's Fictional interlude) line 26, Not:
St. Swithens' Day Correct to: St. Swithin's Day (It's St. Swithin, not Saint Swithens) This is corrected in the 12th printing.
Page
263 (Mickey Mouse essay) line 3 : Not: (Wayne All-)bright followed. Use: (Wayne All-)wine followed. This was scheduled to be corrected in the 13th printing, and is certainly corrected in the 14th printing.
page 276, The Marlboro Man, essay line 18 and 19, (page lines 27 and 28) (4th and 5th from the bottom)
Was: Between 20 and 30 percent of the U.S. population now smokes, down from about 40 percent of the population in the
Change to: Between 10 and 20 percent of the U.S. population now smokes, down from about 40 percent of the population in the
Page
277 lines 10-11 bacco's
kick, is a powerfully addictive substance. Of all
ciga- rette
smokers trying to quit in any year, only 1 in 40
succeed. Replace with: bacco's
kick, is a powerfully addictive substance. Of cigarette smokers trying to quit in any year, a small fraction succeed. Page
297 (Perry Mason) paragraph 2 line 7 Not:
accused use: convicted This is corrected in the 5th printing.
Page 303 (Kirk and Spock) line 1 Not: 1967 to 1969 use: 1966 to 1969 This is corrected in the 5th printing.
Page 310 last paragraph: not an update, but an update offered Original: and the entire Muppet cast. But business deals don't always go through, and don't always last. If it's true, don't fret. They've gotten out of worse predicaments... Could Use: and the entire Muppet cast. But such business arrangements don't always last. Take heart, and don't fret. They've gotten out of worse predicaments...
Bios (first page inside the front cover) Allan
Lazar: omit reference to Fairleigh Dickinson Dental School The FDU Dental School no longer exists, and references would be confusing. This is corrected in the 6th printing. Allan Lazar, MD, passed away on 23 August, 2011, at the age of 80. Regrettably, there is no fix for this.
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Corrections Page last updated 4 January, 2023 |
