well_lahdidah and I were stuck in the airport for about 4 hours yesterday, I noticed that there is a revised edition of Freakonomics: Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. As you may recall, I took issue with the authors citing a well-known urban legend as fact (see Lemonjello).I immediately flipped it open and scanned through the chapter on baby names. The reference to the twins "Lemonjello" and "Orangejello" is gone! Unfortunately, they left in the mention of a girl named Shithead (pronounced, supposedly, shuh-TEED), but at least had the decency to put in footnote directing readers to the end notes, where they admit that the source was an anonymous caller on a radio call-in show and that the caller could have been misinformed.
The authors mention on the Freakonomics Blog that, among other things, the new edition corrects some mistakes. I was glad to see that they removed Lemonjello and Orangejello. I have no idea if the message I sent the authors about it had any influence over their decision, but either way I feel vindicated.
