Back in 1964, the year following the JFK assassination, I yelled at my brother Joe for something he'd done, calling him a son of a bitch. Did my mother and father respond to that one quickly! I've only received corporal punishment a few times in my life (probably more frequently in gym class in school, where you couldn't be late--not even twenty
seconds--for roll call). Here it was again, looming.
"What?" asked my parents, with noticeable anger. "Where did you hear that?" Dad was actually getting the belt out. Trembling, I answered, "I read it in a book!" And was I lucky that I could locate the source of that phrase; I was obviously hooked on that book, and knew where it was shelved. It came from a mostly photographic history of the events around 11/22/63, and I found the part where I'd read that S.O.B. thing: It was someone reportedly yelling that at Jack Ruby, seconds after he shot Lee Oswald. That image really resonated with me, because I witnessed it live on television.
Sources and footnotes will save your ass!