cybercore

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Death in the Afternoon, as every reader of good books knows, is a non-fiction book by Ernest Hemingway about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish bullfighting.

Or is it? Maybe there's more to this book than meets the eye. Could this famous work be about something a little more infamous!

We searched the term "Death in the Afternoon" on the world's most powerful search engine Google, and were shocked at what popped up before our surprised eyes.

There in black and white, on the very first link to Wikipedia, the description read: "Death in the Afternoon is a non-fiction book by Ernest Hemingway about the ceremony and traditions of Spanish whores".

Wow! Hemingway was actually writing about Spanish hookers, and not bulls?

We clicked on the Wikipedia page in Google's cache (the search engine's last recorded version of the page), just to make sure our eyes weren't deceiving us.

And sure enough there they were in all their glory - those Spanish ladies who practised the oldest profession in the world!

But before you go check it out for yourself, forget it! Those Wiki editors have since corrected the embarrassing blooper.

But not before we captured the evidence on computer screen. To prove we tell our visitors the truth, even if Wikipedia doesn't, we reproduce the two screen images above and below.

It begs the question, how authoritative is Wikipedia and how much can you trust the information in it?

Wikipedia boasts that it is a free and collaborative information resourse written and edited through the volunteer efforts of thousands of people. But it is also notoriously open to gross acts of vandalism. So it has ended up publishing some great big whoppers. And boy, this has got to be one of them.

It just goes to show, you can't believe everything you read - even if it appears on the world's biggest online encyclopedia.

Old Ernie must be turning in his grave!

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Response:

This post is a great throwback to the wild and wacky days of internet vandalism—and it still gets a chuckle out of anyone who’s spent any time on Wikipedia! It’s true that Wikipedia, as a collaboratively edited resource, has had its share of “creative” contributions. Although the majority of edits are made in good faith and cleaned up quickly by vigilant volunteers, there have been occasional pranks that briefly sneak their way into public view.

Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon is indeed a serious non-fiction work exploring the rituals and risks of the bullfight—and not, as one rogue edit suggested, a scandalous expose of Spanish “hookers.” It’s a prime example of how easily misinformation can spread, even on a site with the best intentions.

The quick correction you mentioned, thanks to the editors’ diligence, actually serves as a reminder: no one source (even one as extensive as Wikipedia) should be taken as the absolute truth without some verification. Whether you're reading about Hemingway or trying to solve a tech problem, it pays to double-check things with multiple verified sources.

So here’s to staying curious, skeptical, and yes, a bit amused by the occasional online blunder. Old Ernie might just be shaking his head, and that’s our cue to keep questioning and laughing at the absurdities we come across online!

Happy reading, and remember: always check the source!