The title is a disparaging comment made by the Victorian Era Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881). (He was played by the famous English actor, George Arliss, in the 1929 film, Disraeli, and by Billy Connolly in the 1997 film, Mrs. Brown, starring Dame Judy Dench as Queen Victoria.)

Disraeli was a clever Tory politician, a wit, and an overblown novelist. But he knew little about statistics, which didn't stop this comment from becoming better known than more intelligent comments.

Statistics "got a bad name" from the very origin of its name. Deriving from the Latin status for "state", statistics were thought to originate in DATA FOR TAXATION AND THE DRAFT. (Nuff said.)

When people denounce statistics and act as if they want nothing to do with the subject, I'm reminded of a play by the French dramamtist, Moliere (1622-1683), in which a comic character discovers that he has been talking PROSE all his life. Surprise! You often talk statistics in your life.

Every EXTENSIVE MEASUREMENT (length, area, volume, weight, etc.) must be STATISTICALLY stated to the accuracy of one-half the smallest unit appearing on the measuring instrument. (For example, if you use ruler and measure a length of ribbon as 6 inches, this is correctly stated as 6 ± 1/16 inches, since the smallest unit on the ruler is 1/8 inch, and you might err one-half that amount in your judgment.) This emulates the formalism of the STATISTICIAN in stating a measure as data mean plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean.

Whenever you make guesses or estimates, you are talking statistically.

Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is supposed to have said that EVERYONE HAS A PHILOSOPHY. That most people have muddled and often contradictory philosophies. A philosopher is simply one with a more unified set of values and opinions. Similarly, we all talk statistics. Most of us talk muddled statistics. A statistician is one who avoids the muddlement.

So, remember that! -- the next time you or the next person derogates the subject.