Let`s have a brief literary quiz. Please, don`t run away, it won`t be heavy stuff.
I will give you a phrase, and you name the author. If you miss it the first time, don`t worry. You get three guesses.
The phrase is: ''A thousand points of light.''
See? I told you it wouldn`t be hard. You said George Bush. You may even know when and where he used it.
The first time was at the Republican convention, when he accepted his party`s nomination in a finely crafted speech.
He said: ''This is America . . . a brilliant diversity spread like stars, like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky.''
And he used it again in his inaugural address when he said: ''I have spoken of `a thousand points of light`— of all the community organizations that are spread like stars throughout the nation, doing good.''
So if you identified the author of that phrase as George Bush, uh, sorry, but you`re wrong.
But you have two more guesses, so try again.
If you are a student of politics, a Washington insider, or a political journalist, I know what you`re saying. You probably had it as your first guess.
Peggy Noonan, right? Ms. Noonan is an outstanding political speech writer, and it`s generally acknowledged that she wrote Bush`s acceptance speech.
The White House press office won`t come right out and say that she wrote the ''thousand points of light'' phrase. But a White House source says, yes, she did.
So if you guessed that Ms. Noonan authored the ''thousand points of light'' phrase, sorry, you`re wrong, too.
.
But don`t feel bad. I would have flunked my own quiz. My first guess would have been Ms. Noonan, since I knew she wrote the speech.
I knew it couldn`t have originated with President Bush, because he would have been more likely to say: ''I want to tell you about this points of lights thing. We have about one thousand of them. They represent this goodness thing.''
So you have one more guess. Take your time. You have three more seconds.
Give up?
The answer was provided for me by an irate and sharp-eyed man named Ray Riley, who lives in Seekonk, Mass.
Mr. Riley says: ''I would like to suggest that George Bush`s main campaign theme was borrowed unlawfully, in other words plagiarized.
''The definition of plagiarism is to steal and pass off the ideas or words of others as one`s own; use without crediting the source; to commit literary theft; present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing work.''
And what is this existing work? Actually, there are two. Both are books written by novelist Thomas Wolfe, who died in 1938.
In ''You Can`t Go Home Again,'' Wolfe describes America this way:
''It`s your pasture now, and it`s not so big-only three thousand miles from east to west, only two thousand miles from north to south -- but all between, where ten thousand points of light prick out the cities, towns and villages, there, seeker, you will find us burning in the night.''
Okay, I concede that Wolfe saw 10,000 points of light, while Bush-Noonan saw only 1,000 points of light.
But wait. We then have Wolfe writing in ''The Web and The Rock'' about a character`s longing to be back in his home.
Wolfe wrote: ''And instantly he would see the town below now, coiling in a thousand fumes of homely smoke, now winking into a thousand points of friendly light . . . .''
Because of this, the irate Mr. Riley said:
''The political right has heaped praise on Bush for his points of light theme, calling it brilliant and visionary. There is nothing brilliant, nothing visionary, nothing even remotely admirable about stealing.''
Oh, I don`t know.
Assuming that Bush-Noonan did pilfer the thousand points of light from Thomas Wolfe, they should at least be credited with having good taste. Wolfe isn`t easy to read, but he`s generally accepted as something of a literary genius.
So in that regard, Bush has already moved beyond Ronald Reagan, who plucked many of his lines and anecdotes from old B-movies.
And if they did lift from Wolfe, they should also be credited with being clever. Only Mr. Riley noticed.
Several scholars of Wolfe`s work said they didn`t even remember the "points of light'' phrase in his books.
The top Wolfe authority, professor David Herbert Donald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Wolfe, said: ''I have to say it never occurred to me. I would have thought that I knew most of his familiar phrases, but it didn`t spring out at me where I said: `Oh, that`s Thomas Wolfe.` It`s not like `You Can`t Go Home Again.` ''
Of course, it`s possible Mr. Riley is mistaken, that Ms. Noonan or even Bush thought up the 1,000 points of light theme on their own.
I tried to reach Ms. Noonan to ask, but she`s hard to find. The White House wouldn`t give me her phone number or ask her to call.
But maybe I`ll talk to her sometime. I know she`s out there somewhere. Like that thousand points of light thing.