The Copper River Watershed Area, Alaska

Wildly wrong.


"Each of the communities in our watershed, from Mentasta Lake down to Cordova, are connected by the glaciers, tributaries, rivers and salmon of the Copper River watershed, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, with a population of only 4,782, according to information on the state’s Division of Community Affairs Web site."

This is wrong as wrong gets, pretty much. On the Copper River Watershed Projects home page, they say "26,500 square miles". Rhode Island is 1,545 square miles.

Link to The Cordova Times, Alaska

Basque Country, Spain

Wrong.


"Wine expert Jancis Robinson writes that since the 1990s Txakolina has improved “noticeably.” For the first-time, Txakolina, once a little wine made in homes, exploded internationally. Basque country is only about the size of Rhode Island. A little more than 400 acres produce wine."

Well, Basque country is 7,234 km², and li'l Rhody is a mere 4,002 km², so the little wine region that could is almost twice the size of Rhode Island.

Link to Sonoma Sun, California paper

North Cascades National Park Washington

Wrong, but not horribly wrong!




This is almost true. North Cascades National Park is 1069 sq mi, and lovely Rhody is 1,545 sq mi. Rhody is ridiculously small.

" North Cascades, a vast wilderness area about the size of Rhode Island with jagged high peaks and more than 300 glaciers, is the only U.S. national park where stocking nonnative fish still occurs for recreation purposes, Park Superintendent Chip Jenkins said."

Link to Associate Press, who should really learn to fact check.

Aiken County, South Carolina

Close but no chowdah!

"Aiken County is the size of Rhode Island and has 22 volunteer fire departments protecting the lives and property of its residents."

And more points to them. When I think about living in a state where one county is nearly the size of Rhode Island, it makes me twitch. I am the kind of Rhode Islander (South County style) who gets to Providence maybe a couple of times a year.

They are also, somewhat surprisingly, almost right about this size thing, although why people in South Carolina would bother measuring things in Rhode Islands is beyond me.

Anyhoo, Aiken county is 1,073 sq mi, while Rhode Island is 1,545 sq mi. Interestingly, Aiken County seems to have a real issue with l'il Rhody- on the official Aiken County website, they claim that "Aiken is the fourth largest South Carolina county by land area, and its size of 1,073 square miles is 28 square miles larger than the state of Rhode Island." They are wrong, but it is still so much closer to right than most usages, and they are Southern, so I'll cut them some slack. They might have measured Aiken County wrong for all I know.

Link to Aiken Standard, South Carolina

Nancy Pelosi's heart (or airplane)

Wrong.

"Nancy "it's all for the little people" Pelosi has a heart the size of Rhode Island; or is Rhode Island the size of the new plane that she's demanding?"

I know, I know! Neither! Rhode Island is not the size of Nancy Pelosi's new plane, and unless some horrible mutation has struck her (which I'm sure would make the news), her heart is NOT the size of Rhode Island.

Link to The Daily Journal, covering Vineland, Millville, and Greater Cumberland County N.J.

Alonzo Mourning's Basketball Jersey

Wrong.

"On Monday night, a jersey the size of Rhode Island donning the No. 33 was raised to the rafters in American Airlines Arena to honor not only a great basketball player, but a pillar of the Dade County community and a positive influence on people of all ages."

Link to OpenSports, who I'm sure meant no disrespect.

The scoreboard at Yankee Stadium

Wrong.

"He was particularly impressed by the scoreboard — after all, it’s only the size of Rhode Island — and was awed by the space in the airy visiting clubhouse."

This is an exagerration. The scoreboard is actually "is nearly 101 feet wide and 59 feet tall", not nearly the size of Rhode Island.

Link to NYT blogger, who should know better.

The ice chunk coming off Antarctica

It might be the size of Rhode Island.

"An Antarctic ice shelf is at risk of losing a chunk the size of Rhode Island after a retaining ice bridge began to break up....As much as 3,700 square kilometers of ice shelf may break off as a result, said Angelika Humbert, a glaciologist at Muenster University in Germany. "

Well, if the 3,700 km² figure is accurate, that's pretty close to RI's 4,002 km² - the problem here is varying reports about the size of the ice chunk that has now, actually, broken off. Most other reports suggest that the ice chunk is " is roughly the size of Jamaica," (Jamaica being 11,100 km²) "is about the size of Connecticut" (14,356 km²), or, more exotically (and even harder for most people to picture) "almost half the size of Wales" (10,365 km²) depending on who you read.

It's all too depressing anyway.

Link to Dallas News - why would they be measuring in Rhode Islands, anyway?