Why we make mistakes

been given. But what they recalled was often wrong. Some of those who had written a letter to the housing office about Michael remembered that he had spilled wine on the carpet. But he hadn't; David had.

In effect, we really do come to believe our own untruths. But this process, just as Bartlett had found, is unwitting.

How many of the eighty-one words did you get correct?

The Star-Spangled Banner O say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming Whose broad stripes & bright stars through the perilous fight O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?

And the rocket's red glare, the bomb bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave?

1∗ The text of the original translation has been digitized as part of the Internet Archive book project. It's freely available at www.openlibrary.org/details/no26bulletinethn00smituoft.

2∗ Or go to Idolator.com and visit the “Hey, it's Enrico Pallazzo [sic]!” Hall of Fame, named after the opera singer impersonated by Leslie Nielsen in the screwball comedy The Naked Gun. Inductees include Michael Bolton, who muffs the words to the national anthem while singing at a 2003 American League championship game—and peeks at his palm, where he'd apparently written down the lyrics.