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Tom Willard's avatar

Even Northrop Frye, who was said to have a photographic memory, once realized that he had confused the Montreal poets A.M. Klein and Eli Mandel in a closing reference as he returned to the office. He was already 70 and past the official age of retirement, but he shook his head as he told his secretary, "That never used to happen to me."

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Michael Dolzani's avatar

Ah, yes, we all live in dread of that kind of crossed-wires error. In class it doesn't much matter--you can always correct yourself next time. More embarrassing if it is in public--at a conference, on a podcast, or even in print. I've probably told you of the time I told him that he had misquoted Dylan, and he did not look pleased. "There are no truths outside the Garden of Eden" should have read "gates of Eden." But he really did that very rarely.

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Tom Willard's avatar

This happened to me already as a Teaching Assistant. I found I could buy time by turning my "blank" into a question to the class.

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