Alas and woe! This was the first error that was pointed out to us,
shortly after the book was published. Much to our embarrassment. It
will be corrected in the second printing. There is still just time to
correct any more such errors, so feel free to pass them on!
Bonnie
On Sun, 14 Jan 2001 08:24:08 -0500 "Christopher M. Mislow"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Recently our fearless leader, George Ferzoco, commended _The Oxford
> Companion to the Year_ (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), ISBN
> 0-19-214231-3. This is, indeed, a delightful work, and I now rejoice to
> have a copy in my clutches.
>
> However, I must caution everyone to read it cum grano salis, as it
> contains
> some bloopers. The entry for 3 January, for example, lists that date as
> the day on which, in 1959, Alabama was admitted as the 49th state to the
> United States. This should be "Alaska" rather than "Alabama ". (As the
> entry for 14 December correctly indicates, Alabama was admitted as the
> 22nd
> state on 14 December 1819.)
>
> Substantive errata are, I suppose, inevitable in a book of this
> magnitude.
> Sadly, though, even minor inaccuracies shake one's faith in the balance
> of
> the text. This is, after all, a *reference* work, designed to be
> authoritative. And although it is undoubtedly 99.9% accurate, not
> knowing
> where that 0.1% lies undermines the implicit trust which should, if
> justified by the quality of the information, allow the reader to accept
> the
> data without needing to verify it from other sources.
>
> Still, it *is* a fun text.
>
> Bene valete,
> Christopher
-------------------
Bonnie Blackburn
67 St Bernard's Road
Oxford OX2 6EJ
tel. +44 (0)1865 552808
fax +44 (0)1865 512237
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
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