From Saturday’s Boston Globe:
Because of incorrect information given to the Globe and a reporter’s error, the “Word on the Street” column in Sunday’s Books section contained three errors. The story, about the Merriam-Webster company, misstated the number of years Noah Webster labored over the 1806 dictionary. Webster spent five years on it. The wrong middle initial was given for company president John M. Morse. In addition, the word snollygoster was misspelled.
Don’t you just hate it when that happens?
P.S. (Via The Free Dictionary):
snol·ly·gos·ter:
n. Slang
One, especially a politician, who is guided by personal advantage rather than by consistent, respectable principles.
[Perhaps alteration of snallygaster, a mythical beast said to prey on poultry and children, perhaps from Pennsylvania Dutch schnelle geeschter : Middle High German snl, quick (from Old High German) + Middle High German geist, spirit (from Old High German).]
Okay then. Glad we cleared that up.
Aka Marxism. Groucho, that is.