Nicest reply to critical comment ever...

is from Shao-Yong Jiang, Geochemical Journal 40, 639-641, 2006. (.pdf link)

From his conclusion:

Erroneous data with extremely low δ11B values were obtained during analysis of tourmaline from Lavicky granite and Altay pegmatite using an acid digestion technique and TIMS measurements. We thank Marschall and Ludwig for pointing out these problems.

I've read a few comment-and-replies in my time, and I don't think I've seen an author ever thank the commenter for catching a mistake in the original paper before. The best one can generally hope for is mealymouthed mutterings about the difficulties of reproducibility, or grudging retraction. Can someone please give Dr. Jiang a civility award? And forgive his use of the royal "We".