IIRC, the story I wrote about the GR"A was written by the person who got punished himself, in a book that he wrote about his travels across Europe, IIRC he says many shvachim about the GR"A who he had the privilege of meeting, he spoke to the GR"A about the translation of "Ditzah" which IIRC Rashi says means simcha, that's when he made his remark, IIRC, the story is also in the avrohom ben avrohom book, and in the book "HaGaon". If any of the DDF professional researchers/Googlers can find the name of the book where this story is told, it would be greatly appreciated.