Comments on: Overreactistan

By: Frank the curmudgeon

Frank the curmudgeon — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:08:16 +0000

BS! I had to learn all the Soviet Socialist Republics by name .What happened to the Rodesias, German East Africa, Peking & Nanking?
Bombay & Burma and Saigon?
Granted German East Africa was gone ere I was concieved but the others and countless more were were the focus of hours of preparation for the weekly geography test.

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:55:13 +0000

I was just catching up with a recording of “Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday” (a peculiar enough concept in itself), and found myself trying to name the countries on the unlabelled maps (color-divided by country) that serve as backdrops for the talking heads. I have to admit I was better at western Europe than eastern.

At http://www.geosense.net/ there is a game like that — they flash a “City, Country” name and you try to click close to it on a map with national outlines but no labels. The scoring is by time and distance off — not just getting in the right country.

By: Elyrest

Elyrest — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 21:26:22 +0000

I agree with Mitch4 - I’m much more confused about Africa than I am about eastern Europe.

I sort of miss the cold war too Keera - cooler spies.

By: Mitch4

Mitch4 — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 17:29:35 +0000

In my junior-high and high-school years several waves of independence movements came to fruition (especially in Africa but also South America and a few elsewhere) so every year there were outdated maps and globes. Subsequent secessions and re-namings added to the cognitive burden. And I confess, I’m not 100% on which present-day nations correspond to “Belgian Congo” (Zaire?) or “French Equatorial Africa” and “French West Africa” (several countries in each case).

By: Keera

Keera — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 12:42:43 +0000

I miss the cold war. Fewer countries (and enemies) to keep track of.

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:06:02 +0000

Hey, I had to do geography *during* the breakup of the Soviet Union. At least this kid only has to learn things once.

By: mkilby

mkilby — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 06:34:30 +0000

Those Cyrillic names are all dependent on the transcription system used, which varies from language to language. English uses “Kyrgyzstan”, in German it is spelled “Kirgisistan”, but these are all simply approximations for the REAL name “Кыргызстан”.

By: furrykef

furrykef — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 04:36:48 +0000

I never had to learn these particular countries in school at all. I did, however, remember the name Kyrgyzstan simply because I thought it was so weird. No vowels other than “y”, other than the standard -stan suffix.

Wonder if you could ever view a syzygy from Kyrgyzstan.

- Kef

By: Rasheed

Rasheed — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 01:54:11 +0000

This was a popular strip with my family because I am marrying a girl from Kyrgyzstan (FYI, it was the first to officially declare independence from the USSR).

As for your smarmy kid, you may have finished Geography before the breakup, but you had to do it Googleless (and I had to do it DURING the breakup!)

By: David

David — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:34:02 +0000

Yeah, but Hi had to learn both Germanies, so there. I can handle the former S.S.R.s, it’s the Yugoslavia breakup I can’t keep straight.