The recently published Yale Book of Quotations, which has more quotes from Twain than anyone other than Shakespeare and the Bible, has the following: Anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly, Paris the rainy, Paris the damnable. More than a hundred years ago someone asked Quin, "Did you ever _see_ such a winter in all your life before?" "Yes," said he, "Last summer." I judge he spent his summer in Paris. Mark Twain, Letter to Lucius Fairchild, 28 Apr. 1880. This letter is the closest source that has been found for the saying, frequently credited to Twain, that "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." The Quin referred to was an eighteenth-century actor and wit. Fred Shapiro