Idiotic misquotation

Two things about the editorial, "Branded" [March 1]:

First, the quotation from "Oliver Twist" is not exactly what Mr. Bumble said. Somebody--the writer or the copy editor--corrected the famously ungrammatical "a ass."

Second, what makes you think that Mr. Bumble meant "stubborn"? The next two words make clear what he meant: "an idiot." Indeed, the Oxford Dictionary (the version in my Kindle, not the big one) says under "ass": "British informal. A foolish or stupid person."

Henry Oden

Lake Anna