Durova wrote:
EB trades size for reliability. They may get a fact
wrong here and there or
be slightly out of date, but they aren't going to publish absolute hoaxes
and they're relatively family-friendly.
With the heavy caveat that this story itself may be a complete
urban legend, I remember reading (no idea where) about one
case where Britannica had written about the tribal customs of
an islander culture, and about the communal rituals for launching
their wooden boats, and somebody was so impressed by the
elaborateness of these rituals as described in Britannica, that
they wanted to go see the rituals first hand. When they arrived
on that particular island, they found the island to have never
grown any kind of wood from which boats could be fashioned,
and all the ritual customs as described in Britannica to have
been drawn out from whole cloth.
Like I say, this story itself may be an urban myth, and certainly
even if it happened to be in fact true, it would reference a very
early edition of Britannica, perhaps even one of the very first
editions. I am sure even their editorial standards have not
always been as high, as they are today.
Yours,
Jussi-Ville Heiskanen