The Problem With Being Quoted

Abe Katz wrote a winter outlook story for yesterday’s New Haven Register. I was one of the ‘experts’ quoted.

Let’s just say my quotes weren’t the ones you’d put in the first paragraph.

What does this mean?

Not a whole lot, said Geoff Fox, meteorologist at WTNH. “I’m a real non-believer in long term forecasts,” he said.

My problem, however, comes with a quote deeper in the article. I’m not sure whether I was misquoted or just didn’t say exactly what I meant.

There are two problems, Fox said: The forecasts are not accurate, and people live day to day, not season to season.

“If someone said it would be 3 degrees below normal for three months, how would that change your life?” Fox said

What I meant to say, or possibly did say, was:

“If someone said it would be 3 degrees below normal for three months, how would that change your life day-to-day?”

Adding day-to-day makes all the difference, because you would notice a season that’s three degrees below normal. That small temperature difference would take marginal rain days and make them snow days. Your heating bill would be significantly higher. You just wouldn’t notice it on any particular day.

It’s a tiny difference in meaning, but a significant one.

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Lung Cancer Cure at Yale?


If true, this is one of the biggest news stories of my lifetime! Imagine, a major form of cancer being cured… and right where they diagnosed Steffie’s fractured finger last week, and where she was born, and where my mother’s cancer was cured, and where they botched an operation and cost my dad an eye.

This headline is so amazing that I just stared at it somehow imaging I was misreading, or it would go away, or this was some sort of ratings stunt (newspapers can be just as sleazy as TV stations when it comes to circulation/ratings).

Yale is an elite research institution and if a discovery was going to come from somewhere, you could certainly assume that Yale would be high on the list. And, over the past few months I had heard rumors of pending blockbuster discoveries.

If true, this discovery will change the world. Seriously.

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