Blatant errors in books, and on websites

[glasgowken]

Don't know if this thread has any legs, but PK's post regarding the maritime site got me thinking, have you ever seen an obvious, or easily corrected mistake in a book, or website, and thought (or shouted) "NOOOOO that's not correct" ?

I'm not talking about spelling mistakes, slight errors in names or dates, or stuff which is open to opinion, or other interpretation, but the sort of basic factual thing which could have easily been corrected if the author had just pulled his/her finger out, and did some simple research.


A couple which stand out to me, the first is the often repeated "the London Metropolitan Police was the first police force in Britain", and a bit in the book, 'Along Great Western Road', which contained a few bizarre errors regarding the Glasgow trams, it made me wonder if the author has ever read anything about them.

[Peekay]

Journalists talking about divers and their "Oxygen" tanks. If you want to go deeper than 6 mtrs, and live, then you'll not be breathing Oxygen as it becomes toxic.

PK

[Bingo Bango]

I remember playing a game of trivial pursuit that asked the question 'what is the longest river in England?'

the answer given was 'The Tay'

0_o

[Alycidon]

Where do you start. The BBC website is a great source of stupid mistakes, usually concerning a stock photograph used to illustrate a story, for example any problem with the railway system in Scotland is usually illustrated by a London Suburban Unit.

[Vinny the Mackem]

Where do you start. The BBC website is a great source of stupid mistakes, usually concerning a stock photograph used to illustrate a story, for example any problem with the railway system in Scotland is usually illustrated by a London Suburban Unit.

Similarly, the BBC (I think) had a documentary about the smog/fog in London up to the 1950's and included an old, Edwardian looking short film clip of Sunderland. Now, when I lived there, it was most certainly not part of London. Of course, most Laaandaaaners think that London is the only city on the planet, so not surprising that they subsume everywhere else in the country.

[Schiehallion]

The last battle fought on British soil was Culloden when in fact it was the week long Easter Rising in Dublin 1916.

[Graham]

"When Rudolph Hess crash landed in England" was another good one I came across in a book and time.com says he landed at Dungavel, the Duke of Hamilton's estate

On a slightly related topic does anyone remember the BBC gaff on Tp of the Pops with Dexy's Midnight Runners singing "Jackie Wilson Said" whilst in the background a huge screen played a video of the toothless darts player Jocky Wilson. I can see how it would be easy to get them mixed up

Jackie is the one in the top pic just in case you are wondering!

[glasgowken]

I remember that. Didn't they play on the mistake afterwards ? I seem to remember them encouraging it a bit.


Urrgh, i've just remembered the amount of times i've seen "London Bus", when refering to an old half cab bus from anywhere but London

[hazy]

On the Weakest Link the question was " What is the largest lake in Scotland "
Now the correct answer is Lake of Monteith. This is due to the fact that it is the only Lake in Scotland . I actually thought that Anne had hit some geezer with a trick question. But no Anne said" Scotland’s largest Lake is Loch Lomand. It,s not her fault she has the wrong info at hand.

[Graham]

Another weakest link gaff was "if you got of the train at Gilmour Street station which city would you be in?" The contestant answered "Paisley" and was told that was wrong and the correct answer was "Glasgow". Okay, technically Paisley isn't a city, it's a town, but it's not Glasgow either!

Russell "fat eejit" Grant also stated on a programme a couple of years ago that Linwood was the only factory in Scotland still producing cars...

[Alycidon]

The "Scottish Edition" of Trivial Pursuit had a question "What was the first Railway in Scotland?"

The given answer is the Edinburgh and Glasgow, despite it not being opened until 1842. The correct answer is the Kilmarnock and Troon, opened 30 years earlier

[eltor2ga]

The book ' London Illustrated News- Social History of Edwardian Britain' says that Celtic Park is in Belfast.

[Dexter St. Clair]

It's in Donegal Road

[Schiehallion]

On the subject of football grounds, mind the TV presenter who gave the Dundee United score from "Tannadeechy" (Tannadice).

To this day it's called 'tannadeechy' on loads of football fan websites.

[My Word]

On the Weakest Link the question was " What is the largest lake in Scotland "
Now the correct answer is Lake of Monteith. This is due to the fact that it is the only Lake in Scotland . I actually thought that Anne had hit some geezer with a trick question. But no Anne said" Scotland’s largest Lake is Loch Lomand. It,s not her fault she has the wrong info at hand.

The Inglish call an inland body of water - a lake . We Scots call it a loch - which is from the gaelic. The Irish also call it a loch but spell it lough. In fact I think the rest of the world call it a lake. We and the Irish are defiantly different.

Robinson was correct from an Inglish point of view, and she did call it LOCH lomond after all and not LAKE Lomond.