“This would indeed fit under a desk, and I confess in moments of irritation I felt that if Ron had sat down at that desk, the whole country would have been a lot better off.”
The original line didn’t say “I confess in moments of irritation I felt that”.
C’mon, Uncle Cecil, don’t go all George Lucas on us with your old columns! This is as lame as Greedo shooting first.
:wally
You should see the Eskimo column.
Article referred to:
Could a year’s waste from a nuclear power plant be stored under a desk?
No, the original line said
Hell, when guys write their memoirs, they change things around. He didn’t violate the spirit of what he said 30 years ago. What’s the big deal?
Well, I confess that I am disappointed. That was one of my favourite Cecil lines ever 
He did violate the spirit of it – Old column: Really funny. New column: Less likely to draw the attention of the Secret Service, I guess, but really, really not funny.
It seems like a valid bit of updating to me. In 1983, Ron’s choice of desk might have made a difference to the country (“the country might be a lot better off”), but twenty years later, some temporal context is required (“the country would have been a lot better off”). As for the “moments of irritation,” surely the entire span of the Reagan years was just one long moment.
Today’s classic What’s so tough about disposing of nuclear waste? has also been updated.
Knowing Cecil’s incentive-based work habits I’m guessing that there is a “greatest hits” in the works, featuring some new columns and some updated columns. A tentative title: A Compendium of Dope: Some New Leaf, Some Primo Residue.
The updates are very welcome, but it would be nice to see a “revisited Aug 2003” or somesuch on them.
It hasn’t been “updated” so much as “totally re-written from start to finish.”
As per the date, the Disposing of Nuclear Waste article was written in August of 1982. Yet, for example, it discusses at length what happend in the 90’s and refers to the Carter administration as being “20 years ago.”
It’s fine to update things but you should at least include a note that you did so. Otherwise, you both confuse people and open yourself up to allegations that you’re trying to pull a fast one. Transparency pays.
I agree with Truth Seeker.
This is getting worse than CNN.