Ask Marilyn

Quote: Doc

I suggested she refer to Hawaii as our "southernmost" state. I am such a nerd on these things that I view Alaska as not only our westernmost and northernmost state, but also our easternmost state.

I would disagree about easternmost, since it doesn't cross the International Date Line. However, I'm open to your argument why you view it as the easternmost. Also, I challenge you to a game of geography trivia your next visit here. I have a Trivial Pursuit game with said category, and no, I haven't memorized the answers.

Quote: pacomartin

I wonder if she is a fraud. It's a stupid question to get wrong. I still think she had a staffer write the column for her while she vacations in the islands.

That is putting it a bit strong. However, that last column not only was a bad answer but it also didn't seem like her usual kindergarten-teacher style. The Christmas Break excuse is hard to buy, however. She is fully capable of writing columns a long time in advance. She probably just had a lot on her mind. I certainly have blown it myself more than once. For example, in my last SWD.

Quote: Wizard

That is putting it a bit strong. However, that last column not only was a bad answer but it also didn't seem like her usual kindergarten-teacher style.

Perhaps. The columns are usually quite accurate. To all of a sudden go from such accuracy to such a bad error makes it seem as if her normal mathematics person was sick.

But I've seen some really bizarre things. I remember going to a meeting with a Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Navy which despite the Deputy Assistant is a very high ranking official in the well over 300,000 man Navy. She kept talking about our SONAR system, but she kept saying RADAR. Since she said it 3 or 4 times it didn't seem to be a mistake. I was stunned that someone that was that high of a rank didn't know what seemed like virtually street knowledge. It was pointed out to me that none of the Captains in the room corrected her, so that I shouldn't either. I felt that it was a little like having your fly down, and no one saying anything to you until you went home at the end of the day.

Of course, one wonders about the Guam will tip over comment as well.

Quote: pacomartin

I was stunned that someone that was that high of a rank didn't know what seemed like virtually street knowledge.

Oh, I can quote the sum total of Obama's knowledge on economics:

Quote:

It's a common state of affairs.

Quote: pacomartin

Of course, one wonders about the Guam will tip over comment as well.

Ah, the good ol' U S of A. If I didn't laugh at stuff like this I'd have to cry.

This is getting a bit off topic but have a look at this Ali G interview of Pat Buchanan. If you're short on time, fast forward to the 2:30 point and focus on the confusion between the acronyms WMD and BLT. I've always wondered if Buchanan was confused about what BLT stood for or was just going along with the gag. The improvisation on Cohen's part with the mustard gas comment was brilliant.

Stupidity seems to be going around.

How long did I wait for Nareed's Obama quote to "load"?

How about we don't worry about it, OK? ><

Quote: Wizard

If you're short on time, fast forward to the 2:30 point and focus on the confusion between the acronyms WMD and BLT. I've always wondered if Buchanan was confused about what BLT stood for or was just going along with the gag. The improvisation on Cohen's part with the mustard gas comment was brilliant.

I think clearly there is a point when Buchanan understands that the interview is a total act. By the end when they are talking about sandwiches and bumping fists. There is no specific time where his face changes and he clearly starts joking around, but I think he figured it out pretty quickly.

But working for the military, you do think the acronym overload is just absurd. A lot of times, I think people end up repeating them, so I think it is very possible that the first time Buchanan didn't catch on that BLT was a joke.

I do remember a security officer started screaming about TPI one day. Finally I had to ask what TPI was since it looked like I was going to be punished. TPI means "two person integrity". Of all the stupid acronyms I thought that was one of the dumbest I had ever heard. Why she couldn't say, "you can't be in the room alone", was totally beyond me.
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The recent story about Enrique Pena Nieto (the lead candidate for President of Mexico in the elections in July) stumbling when asked the softball question to name three books that have influenced you at a major book fair in Guadalajara, got him more worldwide press than almost anything he has done in the last two years.

Quote: Face

How long did I wait for Nareed's Obama quote to "load"?

Hey, I spared you the expense of buying the book.

Quote: Nareed

Hey, I spared you the expense of buying the book.

Old joke. I've seen "Everything men know about women" about 25 years ago, which was also totally blank. In my case, I must admit, it was right.

Quote: Wizard

Quote: Doc

I suggested she refer to Hawaii as our "southernmost" state. I am such a nerd on these things that I view Alaska as not only our westernmost and northernmost state, but also our easternmost state.

I would disagree about easternmost, since it doesn't cross the International Date Line. However, I'm open to your argument why you view it as the easternmost. Also, I challenge you to a game of geography trivia your next visit here. I have a Trivial Pursuit game with said category, and no, I haven't memorized the answers.

No, Alaska does not cross the International Date Line, specifically because that "line" is deliberately crooked in order to avoid land masses/groupings. As a crooked line, it isn't a reasonable guide as to how far east/west something extends. Alaska does indeed cross the 180th meridian and extends into the eastern hemisphere (or perhaps extends from the eastern hemisphere into the western). Thus, a few of the Aleutian islands are among the farthest east land bodies on the planet. That's why I consider Alaska our easternmost state, even though I admit that it is a quirky perspective.

In my 2007 note to Marilyn, I allowed that she might have been thinking of westernmost in terms of center of mass, but I pointed out that that perspective would suggest that New Hampshire and Rhode Island are farther east than Massachusetts, while most would consider Cape Cod to represent the important factor.

I think I would have to pass on any kind of geography competition, partly because when I studied the topic in elementary school we didn't study the full breadth of it at all, only countries, capitals, rivers, mountain ranges, and such. In 6th grade, we learned the names and capitals of all of the countries in the world. While most of the rivers and mountains haven't changed much, the countries and cities have changed a bunch. It seems that most of the African countries are different from what I studied -- anyone remember the Belgian Congo? French Equatorial Africa? Spanish Saharah? And I still think of India as having a big city named Bombay. Even if I remembered everything I ever studied in geography class (which I certainly don't after all these years), I'd be lost in a geography competition today. I have a failing memory of obsolete facts.

Quote: Doc

No, Alaska does not cross the International Date Line, specifically because that "line" is deliberately crooked in order to avoid land masses/groupings. As a crooked line, it isn't a reasonable guide as to how far east/west something extends. Alaska does indeed cross the 180th meridian and extends into the eastern hemisphere (or perhaps extends from the eastern hemisphere into the western). Thus, a few of the Aleutian islands are among the farthest east land bodies on the planet. That's why I consider Alaska our easternmost state, even though I admit that it is a quirky perspective.

Very quirky indeed, and the kind of answer that could be looked upon as intended to stir debate.

And I feel incorrect.

Lines of longitude do not have a definitive "beginning and end." While Lattitude does end at the north and south poles and those poles are a definitive "end" since the earth spins on an axis, longitude could have started anywhere. Where it does start is Prime Merridian, and that line was arbitrarily set thru the living room og the guy who set the whole thing up.

If you want what is IMHO a better and more correct definition for "furthest east/west" states you need to look at the geographic center and then go east and west from there. With AK/HI included as one mass this would put that center probably somewhere in CA, with eastermost out on Cape Cod or Long Island and westernmost at either HI or an Alleutian Island.

Crooked as it is, the Date Line seperates east and west even though the westernmost part of the eastern side is east of the easternmost part of the westernmost side and the western side is the eastern hemisphere and the eastern side is the western hemisphere.

Got all that?

(Yes, that is what explaining craps does to a person's mind.)