This week Oxford University Press is publishing a book called They Never Said That. It is a dictionary of quotations that weren’t. You know, things like “Beam me up, Scotty” and “Elementary, My Dear Watson.” I can’t think of a better present for your favorite geek. Armed with this book, every time someone makes a quotation from a science fiction movie or TV series, he’ll be able to say, “ah, well, that’s not quite right, you see, what he actually said was…”

Clute and I were discussing the book yesterday morning. We agree with its editor that one of the best things about it is that the “wrong” quotations are often much more apposite than the originals. Language evolves, and so do quotes.