Oh no, it's very real. Turn off javascript in your NS4 browser
and notice that CSS stops working too.
I visited Netscape to talk to Lou about this... let's
see... Aug 1996, according to my records.
Back then, he represented Netscape in the HTML WG, and
there was a lot of shooting the messenger going on.
He said he hated those meeting so much it made him physically sick.
But one night, he had had a late night epiphany that CSS could be
implemented by translation to javascript internally.
To this day, I wonder whether it was wise to encourage him
to do that, or if *no* CSS support in NS4 would have been
better than the buggy support that was originally released,
driving a dagger nearly through the heart of CSS.
In case you're interested...
JavaScript-Based Style Sheets [JSSS]
Netscape Communications Corporation, 7 October 1996
W3C Contact: Dan Connolly
http://www.w3.org/Submission/1996/1/
-- Dan Connolly, W3C http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/