WIST

One of the things I pride myself on with WIST is doing my Googley best to provide citations for all my quotations. Often, when I have to research the sources of a quote, I end up with an online copy of the original, primary text.That’s useful information, both to “prove” the quotation is real, and to provide context to it. (Not to mention providing fodder for future research for good quote.)

In the past, I’ve simply added a note at the bottom of the quotation (in the “more” text in WordPress, for those interested in the technicalities) saying something like “Full text“, with text being a hyperlink to that source material — a web page, a news article, a Gutenberg archive, or, increasingly often, a Google Book.

I’ve now added  custom field in WIST (using a WordPress custom field, for those technically interested) to store the “source” hyperlink info. This will tuck up right under the citation, showing as “(Source)”, which should improve some of the formatting and take up a scosh less space on the page.  It will only show up if I have a source / context hyperlink to put in, and, in general, will only point to primary materials.

Obviously I have some thousands of the “Full text” notes in WIST, and I won’t be methodically going in and changing them over.  But over time, as I update quote, review/update authors, etc., I’ll convert them to the new style.

Let me know what you think, if you have a strong impression one way or another.

Forgive me for noting that conservatives seem to believe that the rich will work harder if we give them more, and the poor will work harder if we give them less.

E. J. Dionne, Jr. (b. 1952) American journalist and political commentator [Eugene Joseph Dionne, Jr.]
“Can this campaign be constructive?” Washington Post (3 Jun 2012)
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I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.

William Thomson, Lord Kelvin (1824-1907) Scottish physicist
“Electrical Units of Measurement,” lecture (3 May 1883)

Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game and dumb enough to think it’s important.

Eugene McCarthy (b. 1916) American politician, educator
Comment (1968)

People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Age of Uncertainty, Chapter 1, (1977)

We are called to play the good Samaritan on life’s roadside; but that will be only an initial act. One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it understands that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman and reformer
“Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?” ch. 3 (1967)
    (Source)