I caught "Jeopardy" in an error the other night. It said that "Go west, young man" is often credited to Horace Greeley, but that the real author is unknown.
Not so. According to my Bartlett's, the phrase was coined by John Babsone Lane Soule in 1851 in the Terre Haute, Indiana, Express. When it became famous, Greeley reprinted Soule's article to give him proper credit.
The things copyeditors know.
This doesn't keep them from error, though. I just picked up a copy of the Johnson County Nostalgia News with an article I had written about local disasters. I quoted a 1908 newspaper article about a tragedy 31 years earlier, "which would have been about 1867." Only if "about" covers the 10-year period up to 1877. You're right, Jerry. There are only three kinds of journalists---those who can do math and those who can't.
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