Now that the accuracy of genetic evidence in proving guilt or innocence is beyond dispute, DNA-sampling kits may become a staple of personal hardware. And yet there are times when strict accuracy is actually undesirable. Arlequin is an essential part of the painting's appeal. The poems of Shakespeare and Donne are filled with inept rhymes that brook no improvement. Accuracy in music may be unusually subjective, but one critic I know believes that the singer Betty Carter had such perfect pitch that she could always be a quarter-tone sharp just for effect.
Inaccuracy can bring immortality with an assurance that accuracy often fails to muster.
The Parthenon and all the statuary of ancient Greece were once painted in bright colors. A few months ago it was discovered that some of the most memorable prime-ministerial radio speeches of World War II were given not by Winston Churchill but by the actor Norman Shelley, who sometimes served as Churchill's radio voice. In the Review 's special summer reading issue of 2 July we wrongly ascribed a reading list to Roddy Doyle, the celebrated Irish author. Unfortunately, owing to a misunderstanding, the 'Roddy Doyle' we spoke to, and who gave us a very interesting selection of summer reading, was a computer engineer from north London. Speaking in the personified voice of Folly, Erasmus urged the rest of us not to lose any sleep over this.