And then there’s Al Franken…
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2009/09/04/al-franken-draws-a-map-of-the-us
So this made me think of something that happened this summer. My family had a private tour of the Capital by an intern of a particular member of Congress. This was the interns last day, so she had been interning for 6 months and was a junior in college. She did mention that she had not done many tours.
We are in the former chamber of the House of Representatives, our tour guide pointed out that there were bricks pointing out distinguished members. She looked down at the brick and said, hmm, not sure who this guy was.
The name was Millard Fillmore!
I couldn’t help myself, I blurted out, He was president of the United States.
worsttourguideever. (What she called herself). She also had no idea why Pocahontas was in a painting in the rotunda.
Why would we expect people to know the states when apparently an intern in the House of Representatives didn’t know the presidents. #-o
To be fair, he wasn’t a good one. 
‘I showed my sister in law, a highly educated and intelligent woman who has been to Spain, a photo of the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sanchez. She replied that those Latin American men are so handsome. I informed her again that he was from Spain and she said, “yes, Latin American…”’
Similarly, I have heard of discussions and arguments in history courses over whether Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who gave the ancient Romans fits for so many years, was or was not an “African American.”
The question arose because the city of Carthage was located in North Africa in what is now Tunisia. But since Hannibal lived and died about 17 centuries before Columbus set sail, it should have been obvious to the students that it is very unlikely that he was ANY kind of American, African or otherwise.
The Chicago Tribune had an article in the paper with a headline”Quake leaves Alaskan Capital Shaken”. Nice of the people of Juneau to be so concerned about the folk in Anchorage.
Nephew (gifted) living in southern Indiana didn’t think Wisconsin was part of the Midwest once while in HS or college. Huh- where else could it be? Had to tell our also gifted middle school aged kid it was the Ohio River we kept crossing to go into Louisville near those relatives so many times. But- that was the kid with his nose in a book on many 30 mile trips who never knew where we were as he never paid attention to the landscape around us. I don’t think he really had that sense even with the to/from trips over a hundred miles on the same road for college. Aside- anyone else feel like a professional chauffer when transporting college kid and friends who all seemed to sleep most of the way (in either direction)?
I do have trouble remembering New Hampshire and Vermont’s relative positions, hard to find a way to make that stick. I can see people who never get near them having trouble with Kentucky and Tennessee as they are both long and narrow plus next to each other. Because of the mountains and hence snow it took me awhile to realize how far south Colorado is. Likewise it is easy to lump many of the other original small states together- hmm does it really matter if you mix up Delaware and Rhode Island locations unless you are there? Or Massachusetts and Connecticut? Aside- or their spellings?
Have confounded people with the statement about a university on both sides of the Mississippi River- it’s the U of Minnesota. And where does that river originate, folks? U of M has a pedestrian bridge across the river. The Mighty Mississippi has to start somewhere and start small.
Vermont has a long border with New York. It also borders a big lake (Lake Champlain).
You can also remember it by remembering that people living in southeastern New Hampshire often commute to Boston for work. Can’t quite do that from Vermont.
I thought Los Angeles was somewhere near Boston or New York when I was in high school. Later I found that I was wrong when I had the opportunity to read a UCLA catalog in a library.
I was 60 before I realized Puerto Rico isn’t on the Hawaii side.
This thread is making me glad we traveled extensively with our kids. We’ve camped near the headwaters of the Mississippi (and oodles of other places). I think one really doesn’t “get” geographical settings until they’ve been there and paid attention - at least most don’t. One can get ideas from a book or map, but crossing the ferry on Lake Champlain or taking the cruise/ferry along Lake Chelan just puts a much better picture in the brain. Besides, if one gets their “map” from many sources - including some on TV weather - Alaska and HI are located down off western Mexico…
Now I’m itching to continue filling in our world map. If our bank account would allow us to travel 24/7, we’d certainly be doing it. The “travel” gene runs in Creekland’s genetics (at least parents to kids).
when i grew up in the 70s we had to memorize all the states, capitals, continents etc. Today my kid’s focus in geography classes has been on the governments and political climates of different countries. My 8th grader was writing about the instability in Africa; while i just memorized the location of the countries. I wish I could have had what they learned; and also that they spent more time on the memorizing (which i know it out of style in education now).
the immediacy of google is good; but i do miss flipping through the World Books and finding other things to look at and read. Creekland, you are so right about traveling. It helps make sense of things. I understand the US west of the mississippi very well. But northeast US – its foreign to me. And yes, I agree with @iaparent , being from NE (Nebraska) i’m met with blank stares when i’ve been in NYC SF or LA.
Not for nothing, but I’ve been known to do the same thing with Wikipedia. The media may change, but the desire to learn something new doesn’t.
There are many videos on youtube about geographic oddities:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6tJ-mvhznU
I never knew about the Spanish enclave in France.
There are many enclaves/exclaves in Europe. e.g. Campione d’Italia is an Italian enclave surrounded by Switzerland
My almost-DIL (two more months) is from Puerto Rico. While in HS, she got her learner’s permit but she never went on to get her license. She and DS now live in Wisconsin and she decided she wanted to get her license. She called the DMV to ask if there was reciprocity or if she would need to get another permit from WI. The person at the DMV told her that Puerto Rico is not on the list of countries with which we have reciprocity.
Of course not; it’s not a country.
We’re all amused by these stories, but it really is pretty scary.
@skieurope The enclaves along the Netherlands/Belgium border are incredible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtLxZiiuaXs
As a long time New Mexico resident, this stuff happens All. The. Time.
New Mexico Magazine runs a regular column recounting such incidents, called “One of Our 50 Is Missing”
https://www.newmexico.org/nmmagazine/heart-of-nm/one-of-our-50-is-missing
I’ve been told at various times that I can’t rent a car because I don’t have a US driver’s license license, that I need a passport to board a plane to travel inside the US.
But what’s really scary, in these fraught times, is that my daughters have had their New Mexico birth certificates dismissed as proof of their US citizenship.
What was the context?
There was this problem: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-is-denying-passports-to-americans-along-the-border-throwing-their-citizenship-into-question/2018/08/29/1d630e84-a0da-11e8-a3dd-2a1991f075d5_story.html
There was another story of a woman who couldn’t get a passport for her child because he was born at home and close to the border (Tucson). Because it wasn’t an institutional setting, they said it couldn’t be verified. Her child’s last name is Spanish, as is her husband’s. Hers is German.
I have a child that was born at home too, and near the “border” (a coastline). I guess I should have kept paper copies of old prenatal visits that I probably tossed more than a decade ago. We’re supposed to purge that old stuff aren’t we? Jeez…
As for Vermont. Everyone should just visit Burlington and look across that lake at the beautiful purple Adirondacks and image an attack coming from NY. Then you won’t forget, lol. Ever wonder why Vermont isn’t listed as one of the 13 original colonies? Because it considered itself an independent republic. But NY kept trying to claim it.
“Have confounded people with the statement about a university on both sides of the Mississippi River- it’s the U of Minnesota. And where does that river originate, folks? U of M has a pedestrian bridge across the river.”
I knew that about U of Minnesota because years ago the dividing line between two of my company’s sales reps’ territories was the Mississippi River, and depending on which department at the university placed an order and where their departmental office was located determined which rep got credited with the sales commission.
And the river officially originates in Lake Itasca, although that determination is pretty arbitrary. As you travel upstream the river fans out into its many tributaries up in its headwaters region. There is no compelling reason to necessarily choose the creek flowing out of Lake Itasca as THE Mississippi River over all the other similar lakes and streams that feed the river in that region.