A Google A Day
Culture
Culture
Who wrote this
in The New York Times:
"Playing with a net
really does improve
the game"?
Hints
Things to think about as you get started
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How do you search for a quotation?
Remember a quote needs quotation marks around the search terms.
Background and further discussion
Searching for a quote is often tricky, frequently because finding the original person
who said the clever phrase is difficult. It's easy to repeat an aphorism many times
and become associated with it, even if you didn't originate the phrase. What's more,
the originator of a clever phrase sometimes will only say it once, while others pick
up on the idea and repeat it later. If that person is better-known, then they get the credit!
Often, tracking down a quotation to the originator means finding it in their original writings
or first-hand quote in a news article. Quotes are often also changed a bit to read
more smoothly.
Thus, tracking down who said "In this decade we will put a man on the moon" is fairly
simple (President Kennedy, May 25, 1961), but the exact quote is: " I believe that this
nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing
a man on the Moon."
How to find the answer
Answer Paul KrugmanSearch If you
search [playing with a net really
does improve the game], it will not yield very
successful results. Because this is a quote,
the words in this phrase should be searched
using quote marks, like this: ["playing with
a net really does improve the game"]. This
approach yields the answer: Paul Krugman.
Follow-up questions
Can you find the actual origins of other famous quotes? Try one like "I cannot
lie, I chopped down the cherry tree with my axe."