Date:  Thu, 7 Aug 1997 12:48:00 -0500
From:  Mark Mandel <Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM>
Subject: "Culprit Zero" attribution

Lest I compound the confusion of who said what when, here is (edited)
the text in which I found the expression "Culprit Zero". It was not used
by the columnist, Mary Schmich, but by Bob Weide, who wrote to the
Vonnegut Newsgroup... at least, according to what I've seen. Anyone
who cares enough about this to want the full text with headers of the
message this is extracted from may have it from me for the asking.

 ==================================

Wooops! I've just seen the followup to the posting of this on
alt.fan.mike-jittlov : it looks like we've been had.

    [...]

Forwarded (and tidied up) post follows:

>Bob Weide, Vonnegut's friend and the author & co-producer of the
movie
>rendition of "Mother Night", wrote:

>:Yesterday I confirmed for the Vonnegut Newsgroup that the MIT
address
>:attributed to Kurt, and spread all over the Web, was a hoax. It was not
>:written nor delivered by Kurt at MIT or anywhere. Copies of this thing
>:were E-mailed to me from all corners -- even received one from
Scotland.

    [...]

>:There is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune named Mary Schmich. The
>:words were hers, in her column from the June 1 issue of the Trib. She

>:never passed it off as Vonnegut's, nor was his name ever evoked in
the
>:column.

    [...]

>:The missing piece of this puzzle is: Who is Culprit Zero? That is,
>:who originally placed it on the Internet, crediting it to Kurt? Mary
>:Schmich, whom I spoke with today (a very nice woman, by the way),
was
>:horrified at the idea that anyone