Corroboration is everything. . .

When 8-year old George Patten's friends did not believe he had met Abraham Lincoln, he was able—through his teacher—to obtain a hand-written letter from the president confirming the meeting. Lincoln wrote, "Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln." What sweet, delicious validation for young Patten.

"Boy, if life were only like this." Who can forget the scene in Annie Hall where Woody Allen is stuck in a movie line in front of a pontificating professor who eventually invokes Marshall McLuhan. Allen tells the professor he knows nothing of McLuhan, and to lend weight to his argument, brings forth McLuhan himself.

Check, and mate.