documentation vs reality: template databases

running 8.1 on a fedora core 5 linux box, up to date so far as
i know.

this page:

http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.1/interactive/manage-ag-templatedbs.html

says the following:

    Note:  template1 and template0 do not have any special status beyond
    the fact that the name template1 is the default source database name
    for CREATE DATABASE. For example, one could drop template1 and
    recreate it from template0 without any ill effects. This course of
    action might be advisable if one has carelessly added a bunch of junk
    in template1.

having just carelessly loaded a backup into template1 instead of the
place i wanted to load it, i had a chance to try to follow this advice:

foo=# drop database template1;
ERROR: cannnot drop a template database
foo=#

cheers,
   richard