One of my friends recently posted this on facebook -- I was drawn because the the graphic shows "Greetings from Ohio!" with a picture of Iowa's shape and a slogan for Idaho: "The great potato state." Upon closer inspection, "Iowa" has various Ohio cities such as Cleveland, Akron and Toledo, as well as Idaho's capital Boise and a couple actual Iowan cities (Davenport and Des Moines). I thought it was great because it sums up most Australians' understandings of American geography perfectly: "oh, yes, you're from Ohio? I have a brother in Oregon, is that nearby?" Utah, Iowa, Idaho and Ohio seem to particularly throw people, as does the idea that you can be in the Midwest and still be in the same time zone as New York, as does the idea that all the states in the Midwest aren't exactly near each other. "Minnesota?" I'll be forced to discuss. "Well, I, um, suppose it's not as far from Cincinnati as Kansas, but I might not quite call it 'my neck of the woods,' either."
Anyway, the article itself is interesting, too: it's written by a Kiwi sharing her perspective on Americans' great "cultural divide." She's referring to the "liberal coasts" v. "conservative center" debate, though I'd be curious to hear if she gleaned anything about the "north" v. "south" debate as well. Check it out!
http://jezebel.com/#!5792535/the-specious-midwest-v-coastal-elites-debate
Friday, April 15, 2011
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You talk about a lack of Australian understanding of American geography, but what about the lack of American understanding of Australian geography. For example American's coming into Sydney airport, they then go up to the information desk and say they have a few hours until their connecting flight and they want to go to Broken Hill. Or they want to go on a day trip to Uluru.
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