Beware the Internet
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Beware the Internet
Our Virginia: Past and Present is a fourth-grade history textbook that was in wide use in Virginia’s schools until a few years ago. Then it was found to be rife with misspellings and blatant falsehoods, such as: The Confederacy consisted of twelve states (actually eleven). The United States entered World War I in 1916 (it was 1917). These are bad enough. But to assert that African American soldiers fought for the South in large numbers during the Civil War is a lie that trivializes slavery.
When did schools become facilities for poisoning children’s minds with disinformation?
The author’s explanation: she did her research on the Internet.
That’s a foolhardy move, as I recently found out firsthand.
I wanted to use a quotation by Mark Twain, which I thought went like this: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.” This version is endorsed by numerous online “authorities.”
Right before my deadline, I just so happened to pick up Dick Cavett’s book Talk Show. I was amazed that four pages in, Cavett ran the same Twain aphorism, except that his version was different—and, as it turned out, correct. Here it is: “The difference between the almost right word and the right word is … the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” I still had time to make the change, but I was shaken.
I had it backward: “between lightning and a lightning bug” was the way I’d always heard it, and it never occurred to me there was anything “off” about it.
I typed four words into my search engine: “Mark Twain ‘The difference’ ” and immediately saw page after page of websites featuring the quote, exactly as I’d remembered it—in other words, exactly wrong!
I went to a slick-looking site called quotationspage.com, which had it wrong. Iwise.com, an elaborate, visually striking site, loused it up. Thinkexist.com, whose motto is “Finding quotations was never this easy,” blew it. Great-quotes.com, with its many sponsors and high production values, botched it. So did Progress.org, with its Twain page by author Norman Solomon. (Solomon went on to write The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media. Now that’s an irony Twain would appreciate.)
These were all impressive websites with an aura of authority, and they were all wrong about something that should be easy to get right—a famous saying from an illustrious American writer. The Internet will get you if you don’t watch out—or maybe even if you do.
—Tom Stern
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
So now you are disagreeing with Frederick Douglas about black Confederate soldiers?
https://rense.com//general56/theforgottenblackconfed.htm
Our point is to thoroughly do your own research before assuming something you read on the Internet is completely accurate.
Dear Mr. Stern: I found your writing a very interesting information, so I think more people should benefit from it. Would you mind if I shared it on my facebook page? It will prove a very useful resource for my students, who —as many people do— consider information online as a truthful source.
I hope you will consider my petition and thank you in advance for your kind response at your earliest convenience.
We are sorry to report that Tom Stern recently passed away. Please see our post Tom Stern, In Memoriam (February 13, 1946-October 4, 2016).
Thank you for the compliment. You are welcome to visit the Grammarbook Facebook page where this article can be found, and click the “Share” link on our page.
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I express this sentiment about the internet all the time and for years now. It is a nice starting point and then you still want to get to a library for serious research.
It seems so odd that so many websites would get this quote wrong, when “Mark Twain Quotations” is so easy to find! It even shows the origin of the quote.
The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter—it’s the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.
– Letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888
It looks like you’re referring to the site twainquotes.com. Maybe that’s one of the sites that Tom Stern used to confirm which version was correct.
I am glad as an author I now have a new mantra: The Internet made me do it.
I consult 4 sources before I believe a statement on the Internet. A warning: NEVER believe a translation of Latin on the Internet.
Call a local university with a Classics department. They will be thrilled to help you.
Another Twainism that I hope is correct.
“In writing, use the correct word, not its second cousin.”
In response too your article on the Internet, how did Tom Stern determine that Dick Cavett’s book “Talk Show” had the correct Mark Twain aphorism?
Unfortunately, we don’t know for sure. We can only assume that he did sufficient research both on the Internet and in the library to satisfy himself of the correct quote. We wish we could ask Mr. Stern that question.
Your newsletters and quizzes are often helpful and fun. I totally agree with your latest premise that we can’t trust many Internet sources, and even more so, quotes on social media where people often feel free to add their own two cents within someone else’s quoted material. However, your article of 11/16 is curious in that you are asking us to blindly accept your word in the same way the Internet does. You list five websites by name that you say all reference the quote the same incorrect way. On the other hand, you give only one source for the wording you say is correct. The source you mention is not a historian of Twain but only a celebrity author. You tell us that Cavett’s version is, “as it turned out, correct,” but you never reveal where you learned about the correct version. You are asking us to trust your information without giving any sources, which is just as suspicious as the Internet. (The sources I looked up have the quote the same way you do in your final version.)
As you may be aware from our e-newsletter of October 12, 2016, Mr. Stern died last month. Thus, unfortunately, we can only assume that he did sufficient research both on the Internet and in the library to satisfy himself of the correct quote. We certainly wish we could ask Mr. Stern himself.
I had never heard or read “an aura” of authority. I always thought it was “an air” of authority. So I wonder where I’ve been all these years, or if I just heard it wrong. It did turn out that using air is also done, and that a synonym for aura is air.
By the way, I’ve also said the Twain quote the way you did, and personally like the misquote better! Oh well.
Thanks for the great column this week and every week. You will appreciate the following: https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words.html
I was bothered that the misquote didn’t have the parallel structure of the hopefully correct quote.