It's right there in black and white.

Have you ever used that phrase? Some of us tend to believe anything we see in print.

I think e-mail is especially nefarious in that regard. Much of my "in box" is jammed with "attachments." Some are innocuous. Others are inspiring. But many are pure fabrication.

I have learned that just because something is written, it is not necessarily correct.

A case in point is last week's "Small Talk" about the Titanic sinking in 1912. I quoted an item in the Plattsburgh Sentinel dated April 30 of that year.

Tim Clukey sent me a copy of the article with his observation that, "Apparently St. John's Church had ordered some specially designed marble floor coverings that were being shipped to Plattsburgh on the Titanic."

I read the actual newspaper story, which talked about "marble sanctuary, rail and steps "¦ but which have not yet arrived."

It goes on to say, "Floor covering for the aisles has been selected by the reverend pastor "¦ and was to have been imported from England. It was shipped on the Titanic."

I assumed, as did Tim, that the "floor covering" was marble. And that the marble mentioned in the story was to travel on the Titanic. I have now been corrected and beg forgiveness.

CARPET, NOT MARBLE

I received a phone call and subsequent e-mail from retired librarian Phyllis Wells, whose passion these days is in writing a book on area church history.

She quoted another newspaper, the Daily Republican, which a day earlier than the Sentinel's story reported it was "carpeting" for St. John's Church that went down with the Titanic.

She went on to say that St. John's "had an Italian marble altar and altar rail installed in June of 1926" and added, "I believe some changes had to be made in the altar at that time after cars became popular because of the rattling that they caused in the sanctuary."

She is not certain when the marble ordered in 1912 actually arrived in Plattsburgh and was installed, but we now agree that it wasn't on the Titanic.

I enjoyed my conversations with Phyllis, who is meticulous in her quest for collecting and writing accurate church history. She said she hoped I wouldn't be irritated by her correction. Quite the contrary, I was thrilled to be set straight on the matter. We chuckled when comparing notes and discovering that the later newspaper not only copied much of the story from the first one but used the exact same headline!