In 1897, after a premature obituary for Mark Twain was printed in the New York Herald, America’s favorite writer and humorist responded by saying, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Well, actually, he said, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” And, actually, the Herald merely stated that Twain was “grievously ill and possibly dying.” But, actually, they had the wrong guy. Twain’s cousin, James Ross Clemens, had been ill, but soon recovered.
So there was no obituary and Twain was misquoted. But who am I to get in the way of a good story?
Requiem for a Dealership
It wasn’t all that long ago that a handful of “experts” were prematurely putting wreaths on all our graves. They were making speeches and appearing in the press. Their message was clear: The death of the American car dealership was nigh. They blamed lead providers — not the productive ones, mind you, but the no-account re-resellers that diluted the market to the point of saturation.
Read the whole article here on Auto Dealer Monthly.
