Re: OT: baloney and cheese

From: "Sarah Marie Parker-Allen" <lloannna@...>
Subject: Re: OT: baloney and cheese


> I think it's amusing that "American" cheese is actually processed cheese
> food, i.e. not cheese at all.  Switzerland is a small place, and few
> Americans can probably place it on a map.  I bet a significant portion of
> the country is uncertain about its current political status, and a good
> chunk of us don't know whether or not it's a real country.  I'm sure that
I
> can find at least 20 US-born types who won't be able to tell me that
"Swiss"
> means "from Switzerland", even if I phrase it in the form of a yes-or-no
> question.  But at least everyone knows that Belgians only make two things
> (chocolate and waffles), each with one variety.  Right?
>
> Sarah Marie Parker-Allen
While I think there may be many Americans who know as little about
Switzerland as this, I doubt it's nearly as bad as you say.  But not being
every American myself, in fact, being less than 1 millionth of a percent of
them, I don't really know for sure.  So this weekend, I'm going to ask some
of the people I meet the following questions:

1) What country is something Swiss from?
2) Is Switzerland a real country?
3) Where is Switzerland?  (on a map without labels)

I'm going to pick more or less random people, and I think I'll get a pretty
good cross section of Americans.  I'll let you know how it turns out.  My
initial guess is that everyone I talk to will answer #1 and #2 correctly,
but perhaps a third of them won't be able to find it on a map.  Maybe more
than that many, but the first two seem perfectly obvious.

Replies