The U.S. Postal Service is honoring Maya Angelou, who died last year at the age of 86, with a commemorative “forever” stamp. Much to the embarrassment of Postmaster General Megan Brennan — who designed the stamp by hand — the words she attributed to Angelou actually belong to someone else. As everyone knows, it was Caroll Spinney, the first person to play Big Bird on “Sesame Street” in 1969, who famously said, “I’m like a bird, I’ll only fly away.”
Which other misattributed quotations were in the running to appear on the stamp?
On desire:
On the importance of honesty:
On what a woman should say to seduce a man:
On the inescapability of time:
On society and conformity:
On death:
On the ubiquitousness of advertising:
On the most painful words she’s ever heard:
On law and order:
On how she retains a youthful outlook:
On her favorite thing:
On the greatest lesson she’s ever learned:
On coping with being held prisoner in a homemade pit or dungeon:
On how a poet might start the night off right:
On cotton:
On her darkest secret:
On her favorite word:
On questions she often has:
On the mysteries of nature:
On how she introduces herself:
