Footnotes always make me look smarter

It figures... I'm just editing the last paper I have due for the semester before I can pack it in and call it done, and something has to go wrong. I used an idea from a book we read this semester, and the author quoted someone on that idea. So, I request the book from the library, pick it up to find the quote to make sure the first author accurately depicted the second author's idea... only to find out the first author cited the quotation wrong. It's not from the second author at all - not on the page he cited, not in the surrounding pages, not in the sections dealing with that thematic topic, not anywhere. So, now I have to put in a footnote saying, "Author 1 is a screw up. I don't know where he got the quote from, but it's not author 2." That's kind of the point I was making in my paper anyway, that Author 1 reads the Bible not critically enough, but now I can also make the point that he's not careful enough to make sure his citations and footnotes are correct.