Two misquotes

Tom Lehrer was misquoted twice, during the same week! And both times were with regard to that quip about Henry Kissinger.

In yesterday's New York Times Op-Ed Contributor section, Stephen Budiansky wrote a somewhat amusing column about how Universities are adopting corporate marketing tactics to improve funding and enrollment. He quotes Tom Lehrer to emphasize his own point about satire being obsolete:

"I knew that Tom Lehrer, the great satirical songwriter of the 60's, had said he had to give up satire when it kept being overtaken by reality. The final straw, he said, was Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize."

Today, Nicky Campbell of The Guardian, made the same mistake in an article (which, honestly, I didn't really bother reading) about what seems to be some sort of corruption in the world British soccer:

"When Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize, the American singer and comedian Tom Lehrer said that satire was now obsolete."

Now, what Tom Lehrer actually said was that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Prize." See the difference? Mr. Lehrer's version is better, because it's funnier to say "awarded" instead of "won."