[LMB] authors goofs that bug me

[louann at millerdome.com]

> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Re: [LMB] authors goofs that bug me
> From: "Dorian E. Gray" <israfel at eircom.net>

> Still, this isn't nearly as bad as the 1970s post-apocalyptic novel set in 
> Ireland (whose title I have mercifully forgotten), which gave Glendalough as 
> west of Rosslare (it's about 100 miles *north*) and posited a thriving steel 
> industry in an Ireland apparently cut off from the rest of the world (we 
> have bugger-all iron or coal deposits).

The Dallas area has been hard-hit by the movie industry. Not that I expect prose-level accuracy (or ANY) from them but the results tend to be particularly laughable.

The X-Files movie: One establishing shot shows the downtown Dallas skyline, apparently from the south looking north since Reunion Tower is at the left edge of the picture. The city stands pretty much alone in a desolate flat wasteland of tumbleweed, with no sign of the scrub woodland, grassy prairies, major river and umpteen million suburban houses that SHOULD show from that angle.

Same movie: Mulder and Scully drive to 'the mountains' and back in one night. The nearest ones are in West Texas, about a 10 hour drive one way.

There was a t.v. movie about a meteor strike where a fire truck from Kansas City made similarly quick work of _that_ ten-hour drive in order to help the stricken in Dallas. About ten major cities are closer, starting with Fort Worth.

Also in the meteor movie, with the strike imminent Dallasites take refuge in their basements. Because of soil conditions and cheap land almost all houses in the area are on slabs. If there are any basements in the area code, they're in houses over 50 years old.