From the PW Daily roundup of the NBCC awards: “Accepting the [general nonfiction] award, [Simon] Schama poked fun at himself, saying, ‘Schama is speechless at the moment the world has been waiting for.'”
What he actually said, and the NBCC backs me up on this, was even funnier: “Schama is speechless—it’s the moment the world has been waiting for.” (It’s a theme he actually went back to once or twice in the remainder of his remarks, underscoring his willingness to poke fun at his public image.) I was going to let the mistranscription pass unremarked, but I saw it get picked up on a few other websites, and felt like setting the record straight before taking off for the weekend. (And, shortly after writing the preceding, I got an email from another person in the room, who swears he didn’t hear “at” or “it’s,” just “Schama is speechless—the moment the world has been waiting for!” We’ll get to the bottom of this one day, I hope!)