Fred Shapiro recently wrote: 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. Much is made in the introductory material to Mr. Shapiro's book about the extensive use of electronic searching to make this a very thorough and comprehensive collection of quotations. That is all the more reason to regret his failure, here and elsewhere, to cite the source of information he supplies in this way. The words used in this case are so close to the source that I have no doubt what the source is, and no doubt that Mr. Shapiro knows, or should know, what it is. Why not say it?