Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for July 03, 2018

BD learned something after spending all that time with Phred.

World geography, as explained by Americans!

To get from Vietnam to Finland, you must travel on land through Afghanistan.

Wars are good for driving world geography home.

My brother was in Riyadh when the SCUDS were blowing up for the first one. He and his son were in Iraq after the second. They toured historical sights after the war but before the locals decided to kill each other. Mortars coming down all around him in the Green Zone.

Unprepared for victory.

Close, it’s actually one more country over. Just like there’s only one country between Finland and North Korea.

Suffice it to say that BD did not win the geography bee in 4th grade. Or 7th grade. Or high school.

BD knows his geography as well as the Donald.

BD must of went to Trump University. Where else would you learn geography like that.

Definition of an Oxymoron: “Military Intelligence”

I know Boopsie’s clueless on geography, but I can’t tell if BD is being sarcastic to his wife’s response, or he really thinks it’s the next country over, near Finland. If he’s smart enough to learn Vietnamese, he’s being sarcastic; which, if Boopsie wasn’t Boopsie, she’d divorce that fool.

I was a linguist in the military, during the Gulf War. A German linguist. Hundreds of us were sent to the Gulf, not because of our language, but because of our clearance level. I was not one of them, I was at the language school at the time, being taught Russian.

I used to think that geographical ignorance was a U.S. trait until I married my Ecuadoran wife. Her lack of knowledge about geography is astounding – especially considering she’s a highly educated woman with a Master Degree.

And she’s not alone ! I’ve had in discussions with young people – university students – who hadn’t a clue where countries were located.

There is something to be said for tactile learning. It took me over two years to find a good-sized, modern world globe for the house.

My wife uses it frequently, and it’s become a favorite resource for the grownups, and the grandkids, for reference and general learning. We even play geography games with the globe.

Sure all those Google Maps apps help, but there’s something about spinning the world around and finding Finland and Saudi Arabia….

TV game shows like Millionaire usually get contestants to walk with geography questions.

When I was in grade school, (back when the blackboard was actually a piece of slate) There were several pull down maps mounted above the board. Teacher could use them to cover the quiz questions she had written there before class.

And here’s an interesting factoid: The Finnish language is not an Indo-Eurpoean language. In fact, the linguistic experts have no earthly clue where it comes from. It is similar to the Basque language in Spain. Unique in the world with no siblings or even distant cousins.

Those two were meant for eachother.

Is this the thread where BD gets blown up or is it on his next deployment?

BD is just demonstrating why there are so Many jokes about “Military Intelligence”.

I’m still trying to figure out why they recalled Ted Williams to Korea