About the work

A closer look.

Sample receipt, the shape of what you get: Claim checked: "Human Nature only reached Thriller because a demo tape played the wrong side." Where I looked: the songwriting credits and the writers' own accounts. What holds: Steve Porcaro wrote it in 1982 to calm his young daughter after a playground quarrel. Toto passed on it. A demo left for Quincy Jones played the wrong side. What the popular telling leaves out: John Bettis rewrote the verses, so the night-city mood is his, not Porcaro's. What I could not settle: the exact moment Quincy Jones first heard it, beyond the accounts already published. Your order: Send me one claim you are about to repeat or publish, and where you saw it: a number, a headline, a "studies show", a quote. I trace it to whoever actually owns it, read that source myself, and send back a short receipt with four lines: the source I found, what it supports, what the coverage left out, what I could not settle. If the claim does not hold, I say so plainly. One claim per order. One revision included. Three-day delivery. If nothing solid turns up, you owe nothing.