One of our favorite new reference works is The New Yale Book of Quotations (Bookshop|Amazon) edited by Fred Shapiro, associate director for collections and access at the Yale Law Library. This volume is a vastly expanded version of the previous version, The Yale Book of Quotations (Bookshop|Amazon), published in 2006. In addition to adding notable quotes from the past 15 years, Shapiro also uncovered new evidence showing that many famous quotations were actually originated by women, but misattributed to more famous men. For example, although Winston Churchill is credited with coining the term Iron Curtain, the term was already being used by British political reformer Ethel Snowden. This is part of a complete episode.
More from this show
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...