Vive Le Brabançonne!
A map of the United States with each state renamed for countries with similar Gross Domestic Products.
I, for one, am a proud Belgian, and will fight for the glory of my beloved Brussels Red Sox. Further, I shall smite any naysayers with my sword and shiv. So there.
Just reinforces what my junior year Economics teacher said:
"You live in one of the richest corners, of one of the richest corners, of one of the richest corners of the world. Never forget that and always be grateful."
Hear! Hear!
Incidentally, I had a good friend in college who was from Belgium (for real), and you wouldn't believe how many people, when informed of this, responded to her with, "Oh, so you speak Belgian, then?"
I fear to speculate on what that map might look like if the states were renamed for areas with similar education levels. I suspect half of the country would be called Antarctica.
I, for one, am a proud Belgian, and will fight for the glory of my beloved Brussels Red Sox. Further, I shall smite any naysayers with my sword and shiv. So there.
Just reinforces what my junior year Economics teacher said:
"You live in one of the richest corners, of one of the richest corners, of one of the richest corners of the world. Never forget that and always be grateful."
Hear! Hear!
Incidentally, I had a good friend in college who was from Belgium (for real), and you wouldn't believe how many people, when informed of this, responded to her with, "Oh, so you speak Belgian, then?"
I fear to speculate on what that map might look like if the states were renamed for areas with similar education levels. I suspect half of the country would be called Antarctica.
posted by Eric at 9:33 PM
5 Comments:
When in college, I spent a semester in Switzerland. Often, when people hear of my destination, they asked "Do you speak any Swedish?" I'd say no, and they'd ask if I thought that was going to be a problem. I usually told them that I thought I'd be alright.
Heh. At least they didn't ask if you spoke Swiss, though that might make more sense from a "Which is the least ridiculous question?" standpoint.
Ah well, we can only hope that for their sake, they had the good sense to name their houses 'Fort McAwesome.'
verrrrrrry interesting!!!
I don't think those jokes are very funny actually. I used to laugh at stuff like that until I realised how patronising and pathetic it was. I'm sure many Euro-/US-/Anglo-centric "educated" people couldn't name the 9 official languages of South Africa or the 25 official ones of India. I hope you get my point.
No one knows everything, I'm sure someone will find gaps in your knowledge. I really do hate being a killjoy, but there is a serious point behind what I'm saying.
Your point is indeed taken, and very well expressed, and you shouldn't feel bad about being a killjoy, either. We can get a little too smart for our own good around here, and occasionally we need someone to knock us back down to right size.
As for people finding gaps in my knowledge, they do so readily and with great flare. I can either take offense at the fact that I'm being made to feel stupid and lash out, or I can acknowledge the gap/error in question and the good-natured (if rather rude) methods of the person pointing them out as a small attempt at humor and perhaps a lesson to be learned. Personally, I prefer the latter.
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