Thursday, October 3, 2024

Don't Know Much About Geography


 Don't know much about geography,  Don't know much trigonometry,   Don't know much about algebra,  Don't know what a slide rule is for...

Lyrics from the great Sam Cook's "Don't Know Much About History."

(My favorite rendition is from the 1985 movie Witness, when Detective Harrison Ford sings it to Amish Kelly McGillis)


This puzzle is huge and took a long, long time to complete.  It covers most of my dining room table.  

But, painstakingly,  I learned some things.  I've never known much about those big western square states.  I had some difficulty lining them up.  

As to the east, I have friends who live half the year in Vermont.  After a trip to Canada, I was telling them about Quebec City and how much it resembled cities in Europe.  They agreed. And said it was about a half hour drive from their house in Vermont.  I thought that was a funny exaggeration. But, after seeing them on this map, I'm not so sure.  

There's a whole bunch of "stuff" stuffed in the northeast corner of our country. 

The puzzle makers chose to display what each state is famous for.  Like Ohio is the Buckeye state.  Not many people know what a buckeye is.  Was the rainbow chosen for Kansas to remind us of "The Wizard of Oz?"   

It was not helpful that they chose to put Hawaii and Alaska in Mexico.  


But I do know that I love you,  and I know that if you love me too, what a wonderful world it would be. 


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