Of the many straw men that journalists routinely knock down, the flimsiest may be a vague F. Scott Fitzgerald quotation. "There are no second acts in American lives," he supposedly wrote, much to the glee of scribes seeking to show how their comeback kid du jour has bucked that supposed trend. But as Frank Hayes pointed out in a letter to Romenesko, using this quotation as a lead for such stories is not only cliché at this point, it's also likely wrong.

In 1995, Earle Palmer Browne wrote a piece about the quote for the American Journalism Review. In it, he points out that not only did Fitzgerald never publish the line—it was found out of context in a mishmash of jottings for his unfinished novel, The Last Tycoon—but that it's possible the phrase "second act" has to do with the old three-act plays of the time, and thus the quote could mean that there are no transition periods in the hectic lives of Americans.

But decades later, daring reporters are still willing to take down Fitzgerald and his dubious quote. Here are some of our obvious favorites from the last couple of years.

Sunday Telegraph
Feb, 27, 2005
The writer F Scott Fitzgerald obviously never imagined Martha Stewart when he wrote that "there are no second acts in American lives".

Variety
June 27, 2005
F. Scott Fitzgerald obviously wasn't thinking of Peter Schneider when he wrote that there are no second acts in American lives.

San Francisco Chronicle
Nov. 26, 2006
"There are no second acts in American lives,'' F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously noted. He obviously wasn't talking about the fashion world.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Dec. 22, 2006
F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote that there are no second acts in American lives. He obviously never met anybody like Dylan, who is embarked on what is surely the most sustained comeback in rock history.

Biloxi Sun-Herald
Dec.23, 2006
Writer F. Scott Fitzgerald once scribbled "there are no second acts in American lives." He obviously never witnessed the P.R. value of a rehab stint.

New York Times
Dec. 31, 2006
F. Scott Fitzgerald said that ''there are no second acts in American lives,'' but he obviously never worked at a hedge fund.

New York Daily News
Aug. 12, 2007
F. Scott Fitzgerald once famously said there are no second acts in American lives. But Fitzgerald obviously didn't know squat about the sports memorabilia industry.