"The number of degrees of freedom is usually self-evident - except for the analysis of data that have not appeared in a textbook." A quote from M.I.T. professor of management David Durand (1912- 1996) Published in a letter to the editor of The American Statistician June, 1970 as part of a tongue-in-cheek "Dictionary for Statismagicians." The quote also appears in Statistically Speaking: A dictionary of quotations compiled by Carl Gaither and Alma Cavazos-Gaither.