Re: OT: baloney and cheese

Quoting Sarah Marie Parker-Allen <lloannna@...>:

> No, but there are for a lot of places that are geographically close
> together.  A lot of people mix up states that are next door or nearby
> (of
> course, that's also because there were sadists involved in the
> determination
> of state boundaries, who had a secret love of squares).  But a lot of
> people
> can't tell which is which in the pairings of Vermont/New Hampshire,
> Kentucky/Tennessee, etc.
I guess I shouldn't be dissing the Americans too mcuh, since on a good day I
might be able to get 30 of the American States right, and I'm considered to have
an excessive knowledge of geography here.

>  Most people also don't know which one is
> Latvia
> and which one is Lithuania, and I'm always impressed by anyone who can
> find
> Albania or Bulgaria on a map correctly.  Also by people who remember
> the
> names of the countries that are in the *middle* of Africa, and people
> who
> can label a map of Southeast Asia accurately.
The middle of Africa? There's not alot of countries there. West Africa is alot
worse.

> It probably doesn't help that the Swedes haven't left much of a
> cultural
> impression beyond tall women with blonde hair.
Nitpick: That's a racial, or whatever term you prefer, trait, not a cultural
one.

Incidentally, to me the land of blondes is Norway.

>  When you know a lot
> about a
> place, it becomes easier to locate it on a map, in my experience.  I
> have no
> doubts about my ability to find Ireland, Spain, or Lithuania on a map
> of
> Europe, but I'm a lot more careful about Wales, Norway, and Austria (I
> have
> serious problems with the centers of every continent).
Don't tell me you've got trouble locating the countries in in the centre of
Norht America? Same for Australia ... :-)

                                                               Andreas

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