h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...the original entry is located at http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A604568.

I guess James Joyce had similar problems with the editor of Ulysses

I'm not familiar with that. Did his editor not know dick about Ulysses and make a whole bunch of other gratuitous, self-aggrandizing alterations?

Thanks for fixing the subject heading, by the way...

No worries. As an editor on a paper-based newspaper for over 30 years, I'm always interested in accuracy... and style

Would you emphasize (your perception of) style over factual accuracy?

"Ah, sandwiches, the classic city-dwelling American's midday meal. As Georgetown at noon is populated in the main by hungry locals, as well as a good number of tourists and visitors eager to sample the great American lunchtime dining experience..."

vs.

"Ah, sandwiches, the classic hardworking American midday meal! As Georgetown at noon is populated mostly by hardworking Americans, as well as a good number of immigrants from various countries wishing to become such..."

1. People who don't live in the city also eat sandwiches.
2. You altered a parallel construction ("hardworking American" across two sentences) and replaced it with something silly. There are almost no "locals" in Georgetown. The entire neighborhood is nearly vacant at night. People come here to work, and that's all.
3. There are no tourists. The foreigners here are here to work.
4. Since you most obviously have never been to Georgetown, much less worked here and become familiar with it, I would question why you saw to make the changes you did. There are other sections, too, that seemed unnecessarily altered.

Guesswork (mind-reading) and suposition have no place in a factual article

Locals are people who work (or whatever) in the locality

This is futile.