Why did it take 14 years, a pawn shop in Reno, and a stranger's note to fix my research?

I spent years treating every stray pencil mark in margins as proof of someone's intent, then a librarian in Salt Lake City pointed out that spiral binding was invented in 1909 and my 'mysterious' holes in a 1902 diary were just a shop staple gone rogue. Now I catch myself asking if a 'manuscript' is actually a kid's homework gag before I spend a weekend cracking it like a secret code. What's the dumbest assumption you've caught yourself making about a fragment, and what tipped you off?

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leog6822d ago

Thought I found Civil War ink, turns out it was dried grape jelly.