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QI = quite interesting - but quite wrong II
by loiswakeman @ 16 May. 2007 - 14:23:33

"The guillotine was invented in Halifax in Yorkshire in the 16th century. The French Revolution's Dr Guillotin did not invent the device; he merely recommended its use to the National Assembly. His ancestors changed their name to avoid being associated with the machine." - QI column, Telegraph Weekend, 12th May

Obviously, he invented a time machine though. Otherwise, how could his ancestors have retrospectively changed their names? (And why did he revert to the old one?)

As I have pointed out before, it is a bit odd that a column devoted to interesting facts seems to get it wrong more often than one might hope for. Perhaps they should save up for a sub-editor to check these things a bit more carefully? Especially in the edition of E facts that includes Errors.

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Tags: inaccuracy, sub editing,

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Little_MonkeyLittle_Monkey pro
16/05/07 @ 14:42

And bizarrely, the QI book that this seems to be taken from, doesn't mention this at all, merely that Dr Guilotine's "family" were a a bit chesed off about the use of their name in this way!
:)

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
16/05/07 @ 15:06

How odd - someone's ears must be burning as they introduced the mistake later!

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LissaTLissaT pro
21/05/07 @ 22:42

Maybe the ancestors edited out the error before it happened?

QI Fanatic [Visitor]
http://www.qitalk.blogspot.com
03/06/07 @ 18:23

Hello again.

Yes that's a nasty error isn't it. It should of course read "His DISCENDENTS changed their name to avoid being associated with the machine". There have been a few complaints made on the QI forum made about the quality of writing (then again the guy writing these columns was previously a columnist for the Telegraph so you would think that he would know better).

The numpties that work on the Telegraph website have been messed up the link to this week's column though. If you want to read it go here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/portal/main.jhtml;jsessionid=IAWXODGSA14AXQFIQMFSFFWAVCBQ0IV0?view=DETAILS&grid=&xml=/portal/exclusions/quiteinteresting/nosplit/ftquite102.xml

It also amuses me that they post the column to the website on the Thursday where you can read it for free instead of waiting until Saturday to pay to read it.

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loiswakemanloiswakeman [Member]
http://lois.co.uk
04/06/07 @ 09:28

Hi again - and thanks for the clarification of the link. BTW, it's "descendants"! (With my pedant's hat on.)

I have to buy the Telegraph at least once a week though -= you can't wrap fish bones or line the rabbit's cage in a web site!

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