# Creative works with factual errors that so easily could have been checked and corrected **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 26, 2010, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051 "2010-07-26T15:01:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Grendel\_s\_Father](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grendel\_s\_Father](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grendel_s_Father)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/121 "2010-08-08T22:22:22Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > > [@Grendel\_s\_Father](#): > > > > Along the same lines, Joanna Newsom has a song Emily inspired by her sister, an astrophysicist, who also sang backup for the track. It contains the lyrics: > > > > Maybe it’s supposed to be ironic 😛 > > I don’t think that’s inaccurate, just imprecise. > > The second line is clearly true: the meteor is the streak of light in the sky. > > Since the meteor is the stone after it has landed on Earth, whose burning while aloft is what supplied the light of the meteor, it is, in a sense, the source of light. > > Since the meteoroid is the stone as it was in space, without the atmosphere to cause it to burn up, it is devoid fo the fire. > > Works for me. But in the next verse it’s this variation: > [@](#): > > And the meteorite’s just what causes the light > And the meteor’s how it’s perceived > And the meteoroid’s a bone thrown from the void that lies quiet in offering to thee Pretty unambiguous that it’s supposed to be ‘chronological’ and meteoroid is used for the rock on the ground. ---
**Author:** ![FallenAngel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@FallenAngel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FallenAngel)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/122 "2010-08-10T22:52:59Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > > [@FallenAngel](#): > > > > There has never been a cartridge called the .45 Magnum commercially produced anywhere in the world, and certainly not a factory-produced weapon chambered for it, but just about every time the weapon was referred to in the story, the author took pains to say Colt .45 Magnum. > > Well, there is a .45 Winchester Magnum cartridge for handguns, so it seems like an understandable mixup. Nope, because Colt never made a revolver chambered for the .45 WinMag (which is how the cartridge is stamped), and the book clearly mentioned a cartridge stamping of .45 Colt Magnum. ---
**Author:** ![what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a5b964/32.png) [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/what_do_I_type_here)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/123 "2010-08-11T23:16:58Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Will Shakespeare had quite a few inaccuracies that could have been checked out. > > 1. Clock chiming in “Julius Caesar”. Ancient Romans didn’t have them. And the cuckoo clock was not invented in Switzerland which hurts the Harry Lime speech in “Third Man”. > 2. Hamlet went to a university built several centuries after the period the play is set in > 3. “Tempest” talks about a sea voyage from Verona to Milan, two inland cities 80 miles apart. > 4. “Taming of the Shrew” has a sail maker in Bergamo. It is in the Italian Alps, 100 miles away from the sea. Also Padau is described as a port. > > [roadtickle.com](http://roadtickle.com/things-you-did-not-know-about-shakespeare/) From that link: > [@](#): > > There is no doubt that Shakespeare has had an immense influence on the English language. Many phrases that we use on a regular basis came from Shakespeare’s plays, but did you know that Shakespeare created nearly 1,700 words that are now used in the English language? Most were taken from other languages, including “torture”. Are we sure about that? [www.etymonline.com](http://www.etymonline.com) doesn’t mention Shakespeare in its entry for “torture.” ---
**Author:** ![Dan\_Norder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4af34b/32.png) [@Dan\_Norder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dan_Norder)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/124 "2010-08-12T01:45:21Z")
> [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](#): > > Are we sure about that? We’re sure that’s wrong. Some ignorant person confused “Shakespeare’s famous works use a lot of words for which we currently haven’t stumbled across earlier printed documentation of because some of it may not have been printed previously, or was lost since then, or only a handful of people bother to read what does exist and when they do they aren’t that worried about what word came when” with “Shakespeare invented thousands of words.” And since the second sentence is shorter and more interesting to shallow people, it’s what gets repeated. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/125 "2010-08-12T02:21:39Z")
> [@Mississippienne](#): > > What was that wretched episode of ER, where (I think) Eriq LaSalle goes to Mississippi, which is portrayed as a Third World backwater ala Somalia, and rides around on a swampboat through our apparently vast bayou (???), and teaches the native black people how to stand up to racism, because of course black people from Mississippi don’t know nothing about standing up to racism, they have to wait for Eriq LaSalle to come down and spread his magical knowledge to them. Offensive to basically everyone in this state. Alabama’s in the same boat. There are several sitcoms (_Married With Children_, _That Seventies Show_ and others) that have episodes set here where evidently they find the only place in the state without telephones or fast food places or- in effect- every kind of place and technology every other city or town of equal size anywhere in the country has. Speaking of southern things, on the TV show _HEROES_ in which a young woman has to put up with her boss’s sexual harassment at a fast food place because she lives in post-Katrina New Orleans and, as her boss says, “there ain’t no other jobs in miles of here”. Actually it was quite the contrary: there were plenty of low playing fast food and tourist type jobs going begging because so many people who would have taken them never returned to the areas. Speaking of New Orleans, I hate when TV shows and movies portray New Orleansians as speaking with “Y’all come up heah on the veranda and drank a mint julep wid me…” stock southern accents. In addition to the fact that few southerners _anywhere_ have that accent (and on TV and in movies it’s used for characters who are rich/poor/white/black/educated/ignorant/trailer park/columned mansion) it’s doubly irritating with NOLA which is one of the few cities in the U.S. with its own distinct dialect family, and the dialects you’re most likely to hear among the native born are closer to what you’d hear in Astoria or Brooklyn than to what you’d hear in Atlanta or Nashville. And of course how many sitcoms and movies have characters who use “Y’all” as a singular? The very first page of the novel _M_A_S_H does this- irked me so much I stopped reading. Speaking of M_A_S\*H, on one episode Hawkeye tells the sad and poignant story of Charles Drew, the black doctor who contributed to blood typing and plasma storage and died in a car accident because no white hospital would admit him. I’ll admit I used to believe this myself, but it’s an urban legend with no basis in fact: he died from a car accident in the south, but it had nothing to do with the local hospital, he was simply too severely injured. The same story is told about Bessie Smith- including by her half sister who lived until the 1990s- and was the basis of a play by Edward Albee: also simply not true, she in fact received excellent care by a physician who happened to come along just after the accident and in fact the nearest hospital was a black hospital, but she was too far gone to save. The notion of blacks dying because of white hospitals refusing them care is used in several shows and movies- _Purlie Victorious_, an episode of _Archie Bunkers Place_ mentions it and other shows and movies have referenced it. I won’t say it never happened but if it did it was extremely rare and most whites would have been outraged as well. Most small town hospitals were integrated (they had black and white wards [as did many northern hospitals] but they treated all races) and where you did find segregated hospitals was in cities when they had all black AND all white hospitals and it’s highly unlikely a black person would have been taken to a white hospital or a white person to a black hospital to begin with, let alone refused care at one. This is not in any way to say segregation didn’t exist or that it wasn’t ridiculous and often inhumane, but that just happens not to be one of the hallmarks. (For a really interesting read on segregated hospitals, try [Under the Knife: How a Wealthy Negro Surgeon Wielded Power in the Jim Crow South](http://www.amazon.com/Under-Knife-Wealthy-Surgeon-Wielded/dp/0743242572), a book that I don’t know but suspect had some influence on _Cider House Rules_ but is a true story of a black doctor who performed illegal abortions, many of them on women from wealthy and powerful white families, and used the blackmail leverage it gave him to fund one of the best hospitals in the south.) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/126 "2010-08-12T11:16:56Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I’ve just started reading **The Passage** by Justin Cronin and the first 50 pages are filled with errors like this. The story takes place in 2018 and most of the problems have to do with dates… > > - A little girl shows aptitude for math when watching the “shopping for prizes” part of Wheel of Fortune. Wheel of Fortune hasn’t used the “shopping for prizes” format in 20 years (30 in the book’s timeline). In all fairness, you don’t yet know whether they’ll bring that back by 2018. (After all, it’s not an error when Marty McFly hears the Cubs just beat Miami to win the 2015 World Series, right?) ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/127 "2010-08-12T11:37:10Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > > [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > > > There was an episode of _Millennium_ that IIRC dealt with the Holy Grail and/or the so-called Spear of Destiny. Someone mentioned Wagner’s opera _Die Götterdämmerung_, pronouncing the “die” like the English word “die” rather than “dee” as it would be in German. > > Any chance it was _Die Walküre_? If not, it was worse than you think, because the title of _Götterdämmerung_ lacks any article, howsoever it may be pronounced. Either way, it would be an odd reference, since _Parsifal_ is the opera that deals with the Grail and Spear, not any of the _Ring_ operas. ---
**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/128 "2010-08-12T13:22:43Z")
My entry comes from the book _The Sparrow_, which I picked up on a recommendation from someone on these boards. In it, the main character is a superior linguist - it’s pointed out very clearly that he’s learned 14 languages, six of them in the space of just over three years. So I was a little surprised that he didn’t know what “groggy” meant, especially because he’s Puerto Rican. Sure, they mostly speak Spanish down there, but English is also one of its official languages. And this character had a very rough beginning, but then was plucked from that and highly educated. I just find it pretty weird that he doesn’t recognize “groggy.” ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/129 "2010-08-12T13:38:42Z")
“Cotton fields,” by Credence Clearwater Revival has: “It was down in Louisiana, Just about a mile from Texarkana …” The Louisiana state line is a good 30 miles from Texarkana. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/130 "2010-08-12T14:38:56Z")
My worst offender in this area is Bee Movie. The movie starts with these words: > [@](#): > > According to all known laws > of aviation, > > there is no way a bee > should be able to fly. > > Its wings are too small to get > its fat little body off the ground. > > The bee, of course, flies anyway > > because bees don’t care > what humans think is impossible. Yeah. Not only is this [debunked by Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1076/is-it-aerodynamically-impossible-for-bumblebees-to-fly), but the misconception regards _bumble bees_, not regular bees. You would think that somebody on a project with a huge Hollywood budget involving hundreds of people and high paid directors and producers would spot a factual error that is essentially the very first thing you see in the movie. You would also imagine that Jerry Seinfeld would have an interest or obligation in doing some basic fact checking about bees before launching a title called _Bee Movie_. But I digress. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/131 "2010-08-12T23:04:13Z")
> [@Snickers](#): > > My entry comes from the book _The Sparrow_, which I picked up on a recommendation from someone on these boards. In it, the main character is a superior linguist - it’s pointed out very clearly that he’s learned 14 languages, six of them in the space of just over three years. So I was a little surprised that he didn’t know what “groggy” meant, especially because he’s Puerto Rican. Sure, they mostly speak Spanish down there, but English is also one of its official languages. And this character had a very rough beginning, but then was plucked from that and highly educated. I just find it pretty weird that he doesn’t recognize “groggy.” I read _The Sparrow_ just a couple of months ago and don’t remember anything about the main character not knowing the word “groggy”, but even if he didn’t that’s not a factual error. It’s at worst implausible. I wouldn’t even call it that, given that this character is a non-native English speaker and the book is set in the (near) future\*. Being a linguist or even being fluent in another language doesn’t mean one knows every single word in that language, and “groggy” isn’t the type of word one would encounter often in an academic or professional setting. In a future world it might also be a word that hardly anyone uses anymore because it’s so “old-fashioned”. \*The action begins in 2019, which doesn’t seem all that far off now but was about 25 years in the future when the book was written. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/132 "2010-08-13T04:12:26Z")
> [@fachverwirrt](#): > > > [@KneadToKnow](#): > > > > Any chance it was _Die Walküre_? If not, it was worse than you think, because the title of _Götterdämmerung_ lacks any article, howsoever it may be pronounced. > > Either way, it would be an odd reference, since _Parsifal_ is the opera that deals with the Grail and Spear, not any of the _Ring_ operas. Well, this is apparently the transcript of the episode I remember (REALLY poorly). [Transcript of Roosters - Millennium Episode and Credits Guide](http://millennium-thisiswhoweare.net/cmeacg/episode_transcript.php?mlm_code=216) _Götterdämmerung_ reference? No. :smack: Spear mentioned? No. :smack: Grail references? Check. _Parsifal_ references? Check. It must have been the mispronunciation of “die Blutfahne” that made me cringe. :smack::smack::smack: In other news, there are still fans of the series who are devoted enough to produce transcripts and develop “virtual seasons”! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/133 "2010-08-13T13:46:50Z")
Of course, whenever I hear Andrew Lloyd Webber referred to as a lyricist or in connection with Les Miserables, I throw something. And referring to “cast recordings” as “soundtracks” makes me cringe. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/134 "2010-08-13T13:51:37Z")
> [@cactus\_waltz](#): > > My worst offender in this area is Bee Movie. The movie starts with these words: > > > [@](#): > > > > According to all known laws > > of aviation, > > > > there is no way a bee > > should be able to fly. > > > > Its wings are too small to get > > its fat little body off the ground. > > > > The bee, of course, flies anyway > > > > because bees don’t care > > what humans think is impossible. > > Yeah. Not only is this [debunked by Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1076/is-it-aerodynamically-impossible-for-bumblebees-to-fly), but the misconception regards _bumble bees_, not regular bees. You would think that somebody on a project with a huge Hollywood budget involving hundreds of people and high paid directors and producers would spot a factual error that is essentially the very first thing you see in the movie. You would also imagine that Jerry Seinfeld would have an interest or obligation in doing some basic fact checking about bees before launching a title called _Bee Movie_. But I digress. I give animated movies a pass. Once you’ve accepted talking animals, how can you hold them to any factual standard? ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/135 "2010-08-13T14:23:00Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I give animated movies a pass. Once you’ve accepted talking animals, how can you hold them to any factual standard? Concur. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/136 "2010-08-13T15:19:42Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I give animated movies a pass. Once you’ve accepted talking animals, how can you hold them to any factual standard? Well, I lack-of-concur. I would think someone named after (NO, not an animated fish) a beloved character of _Winsor McKay, a **pioneer** of animation_ would realize that if the animated world doesn’t have consistency, you lose viewers. Wallace & Gromit, Bugs Bunny, Kiki’s Delivery Service – they all have an internal logic to them. Even The Simpsons: If Smithers is deathly allergic to bees one episode, but then is stung all over without feeling it later, it bothers some of us (Oh, yes, _that_ Smithers, the one who started out _accidentally black_, then changed to yellow). When you ignore logic because “it’s just a cartoon”, you end up with travesties like the “Principal Skinner is really Armin Tamzarian” debacle, or a entire show that violates its own rules (Family Guy, I’m looking at you… or rather, I’m _not_). ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/137 "2010-08-13T20:38:14Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I give animated movies a pass. Once you’ve accepted talking animals, how can you hold them to any factual standard? That is not really the same thing. Bee Movie isn’t trying to make it seem like bees \*actually \*talk, that is simply how the Bee Movie universe works. The movie does, however, pass off the tidbit about flying bees as fact, which is clumsy and incorrect. Does it matter if it’s animated? Wouldn’t you be annoyed if Bugs Bunny paid a visit to “Dublin, capital of Scotland”? I don’t see a reason to hold a lower standard to animated films. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/138 "2010-08-13T20:52:23Z")
> [@cactus\_waltz](#): > > Does it matter if it’s animated? Wouldn’t you be annoyed if Bugs Bunny paid a visit to “Dublin, capital of Scotland”? I’d probably assume it was a joke of some sort. Warner Brothers Cartoons are full of factual errors, and most of them are deliberate and foe comical purpose. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/139 "2010-08-13T23:05:51Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > > [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > > > I recall reading [this](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/6232148/The-Lost-Symbol-and-The-Da-Vinci-Code-author-Dan-Brown-50-factual-errors.html) a while ago - a list of 50 factual errors in Dan Brown’s _The Lost Symbol_ and _The Da Vinci Code_. > > Only 50? I remember a blog post critiquing all the factual errors they thought Brown had made in the first \paragraph\. But that said, those were mostly the sort of sloppy description I’m happy to gloss over in a comparatively enjoyable book; it’s errors of history that Brown DELIBERATELY perpetuates that makes me cross. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051/140 "2010-08-14T04:56:18Z")
> [@spacemandave](#): > > It turns out that Reynolds, who is Welsh, just didn’t realize that North and South Dakota were two different states. Were all the Americans expats in Paris? They may not have wanted to make a big deal of it. How many Francophiles are going to nitpick which Dakota? Maybe they thought he was obfuscating but didn’t care why. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > In one scene she meets somebody in passing and she says that she thinks he’s black but she’s always had trouble telling the difference between black people and white people. > > The problem, however, is that Baltimore is supposed to be an expert on twentieth century American culture and a veteran of numerous time travel missions to this era. Throughout the rest of the book, she’s shown working undercover in various times and places in the United States, interacting with people, speaking fluent idiomatic English, making pop culture references, using 20th century technology, all without ever slipping up and tipping off anyone she encounters. It strains credibility that she would know American culture this well and somehow have never figured out our peculiar views on race. Does she see in a different visual spectrum, due to some genetic drift? 😛 As far as telling the difference goes, I suppose one could tell the difference between a very dark-skinned person & a very light-skinned person, but have trouble finding the “line.” Actually, I think that’s true of many of us who \*live \*in this culture. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creative-works-with-factual-errors-that-so-easily-could-have-been-checked-and-corrected/548051.md?page=8)