London fog

Thanks to Hub Blog for pointing me to this story about dumb Britons who think that Winston Churchill was a fictitious character but that Sherlock Holmes was a real person. It's fun to read about stupidity in other lands, though I am suspicious of the poll that the story is based on. I mean, if someone with a clipboard stopped me in Downtown Crossing and quizzed me, I think it would be great fun to say that the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" was reportage but that Gandhi was a work of science fiction. If I were especially playful, I'd even claim that Lyndon LaRouche actually exists.