My favorite erratum of all time: in 1977, whilst browsing the Journal of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Caltech library, I saw a little slip of paper tucked into one issue correcting a mistake in an earlier volume. It read as follows:

In the article "Devote Every Effort to Running Successfully Socialist Research Institutes" (Scientia Sinica, v. XIX, n. 5) the phrase "arch unrepentant capitalist-roader in the Party Teng Hsiao-ping" should read "Teng Hsiao-ping."

(Teng had been recently rehabilitated.) Alas, somebody else beat me in sending it to The New Yorker...

(many thanks to Adam Safir http://www.anstyn.com/ for reminding me of this, and for teaching me the word "corrigendum" ...)

TopicHumor - TopicSociety - TopicScience - TopicPersonalHistory - 2004-06-21

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