Incorrect Attribution

Here is a quote that is usually attributed to John Lennon:
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

While Lennon probably said this at some point - it turns out he was not the first to have done so.

I love books.  Love 'em.  Have them all over my house.

Twice a year, the Albuquerque main library has a $3-a-bag book sale.  You take a bag

and stuff as many books into it as you can.  You can buy as many bags of books as you want.  Love it!  One of the books I bought in November 2010's sale was Bennett Cerf's Laugh Day.  It bills itself as a "treasury of over 1000 humorous stories, anecdotes...."

At one point in the book, Cerf mentions that he loves to collect quotes.  (Me, too!)  One of the quotes is:
"Life is what happens to you while you're making other plans."  Cerf attributes the quote to a Robert Balzer.  (I haven't looked him up so am not sure who he is.)  As you can see, other than Lennon's use of the word 'busy', the quotes are identical.

Cerf was not ignoring Lennon since the book was published in 1965, right about the time that Lennon was rising to enough prominence to be quoted.  Cerf does not say when he first noted the quote from Balzer, but considering the amount of time it takes to compile and publish a book, it had to have been at least several years before 1965.

It's likely that Lennon (who was NOT a stupid man) saw or heard the quote someplace and used it.  People who didn't know about Balzer then gave Lennon all the credit.

It was just interesting to be reading a 45-year-old book and run across the quote.
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Also seen in this book is a list of words that are now obsolete.  (Note:  the list is from another book, Your English Words by John Moore.)
Example:
Quockerwodger - it's a puppet.
Skilligolete - a soup served sometimes to prisoners or sailors (now there's an odd combination).
Calibogus - a mixture of spruce beer and rum (eew?).
Jobbernowl - a blockhead.
Rumblegumption - a Scottish word for common sense.

All for now.
Papillon