While it's impossible to attribute all of Cobb's flaws to Stump's fabrications, Stump's portrayal of him as the most villainous figure in baseball history was accepted as fact for so long that it remains the dominant representation of him, said author Charles Leerhsen, who is researching and writing a biography of Cobb.

WSJ: Ty Cobb: A Juicy Look At the Georgia Peach

Happily, neither author is trapped in the linguistic chauvinism that the English all too often attribute to the French.

ECONOMIST: Two nations with a common language

Some attribute it all to the enigma that is Alan Greenspan, who fervently believes in free markets as a part of human nature.

BBC: Greenspan Alert!

It took virtually no time at all for some to attribute the tragic earthquake and tsunami that devastated lives and property in Japan to global warming.

FORBES: Got Problems? Blame Global Warming

It was an attribute that Olivier, Gielgud and Richardson all brought to the English stage.

ECONOMIST: Theatre history

One can't attribute all of the growth and prosperity of the 1990s to the gutsy Democratic effort to balance the budget, but it surely deserves some of the credit.

FORBES: Grand New Party

Though researchers differ over all the reasons why gun violence has declined, many attribute it to the aging of the baby boomers.

NPR: Reports Show Gun Homicides Down Since 1990s

During most of his professional life, Giuliani has situated himself at the center of a tight-knit group of associates, almost all of them white and male, whose foremost attribute is devotion to him.

NEWYORKER: Mayberry Man

And I tell that story partly because it brings a smile to my face, but also because it captures the quiet, dogged, dignified persistence that all of us who loved Dr. Height came to know so well -- an attribute that we understand she learned early on.

WHITEHOUSE: Remembering Dr. Dorothy Height