I sat through a beauty school graduation once (you might not have known those even existed but they do. Oh how they do...) when the head beautician/world record holder for the longest-fingernails-in-the-whole-world-ever! stood up and offered a "speech". Said speech included references to the hardships of beauty school and even offered up a quote from Sir Winston Churchill. She told how "Winston" once delivered an address in which he walked to the lectern, stared at the gathered crowd and said, "Never. Never. Never, give up!" and then he sat down. The best part is, she explained all this while hoisting a poster which spelled out the quote in glittered writing.
Now, having slogged through all one billion pages of "The Last Lion" I found this story highly dubious. So dubious in fact, that while pondering the quote, I emailed winstonchurchill.org for a little clarification.
Turns out the story proves to be a total, over-the-top lie. Churchill had delivered a speech with the phrase, "Never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." But he never, never, never gave the quote the beautician butchered. Never.
But here's my simple point. Anything written in glitter probably needs some verification. And while we're at it, lets pay particular attention to put that sparkly quote back into context, can we? I mean, I don't know Sir Churchill well enough to call him Winston, but I doubt if given the chance to speak at a beauty school graduation, he would have chosen to say "Never, never, never give up". But... at the same time, I also doubt that if Martin Luther King, Ghandi, or Mother Theresa ever had the chance to read my blog they would bother to say anything profound to me either. Rather, they would ask, "Why do you waste so much time blogging?" and I would say, "leave me alone you over-zealous, do-gooder ghosts."
