March 28, 2003

How Many Syllables Did You Say?

To the Editor:

In his amusing collection of "Yagoda's Unfamiliar Quotations" (The Review, February 21), Ben Yagoda provided one of his own that I suspect he hopes will remain unfamiliar: "The next day he received a six-word, six-syllable telegram. It read: 'You can sleep when you are dead.' "

The telegram has seven words and syllables, not six.

Robert P. Burke Director of Research Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Ohio Columbus, Ohio

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