31 May 1992

        Mark Twain has just gotten two teenagers into trouble in
Pennsylvania,
according to today's Baltimore SUN.  The girls who apparently read a
quotation
for the day over the school's public address system in Beaver Falls,
Pennsylvania, used a Twain quotation which did not amuse administrators.
        A TEACHERS' TREASURY OF QUOTATIONS attributed the following to
Twain:
"First, God created idiots.  That was just practice.  Then he created school
boards."
        The girls were punished for showing disrespect to the school board
according to their school principal.  Nothing is said about the difficulty
the
teacher who approved the use of the TREASURY OF QUOTATIONS (though not the
specific quote) will encounter.  I suspect it will be considerable.
        Some words still have power.