Monday, July 25, 2011

Death by Pedantry


While browsing Wikipedia I came across this unusual death that I thought aspiring editors might find interesting, or identify with!

270 BC: Philitas of Cos, Greek intellectual is said by Athenaeus of Naucratis to have studied arguments and erroneous word-usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death. Alan Cameron speculates that Philitas died from a wasting disease which his contemporaries joked was caused by his pedantry.


1 comment:

Pat said...

How nice to get this post from you, Samantha!

Very interesting that someone could be that devoted. I wonder if there are other such examples in history.

I saw this funny bit of text on a UH Foundation flyer recently:

Be apart of your school by helping to raise money for it.