Polanski Under House Arrest In Zurich, Sweden

[DMark]

Yes...that is how it was reported on the local television newscast.

I guess they don't have really good maps at television stations here in Las Vegas.

[shantih]

Sweden, Switzerland, whatever. At least they got the continent right. It doesn't do to set the bar too high with local news.

Now, if they had confused Austria and Australia ...

[Beware of Doug]

In New York, being citizens of the world, they would be less likely to get foreign countries wrong, but more likely to screw up US states. The notion of Flyover Country is pretty much confined to North America.

[Mops]

It's Gstaad not Zurich, to boot.

[shantih]

No, it's ITALY that's shaped like a boot. You would know this if you'd ever been to Europe.

[DMark]

Originally Posted by shantih

No, it's ITALY that's shaped like a boot. You would know this if you'd ever been to Europe.

And as tschild is in fact from Germany, I am sure they will appreciate the story from my college class. I told them I lived in Berlin for many years and one student asked, "How far is Germany from Europe?" Sadly, only about half the class found this funny and the other half wanted to hear the answer.

[shantih]

I know tschild is from Germany -- I was just being jocular. I have my own 'location oblivious' story: my mother was visiting us about a year after I moved to Germany and bought up a mess of Kinder Eggs (Überraschungseier) at a store, and tried to pay in dollars. It will shock you, but they didn't accept dollars so much as marks (at the time). I paid for her and she said something vaguely about not realizing that dollars wouldn't work here. *sigh*

[Johnny L.A.]

Originally Posted by shantih

Now, if they had confused Austria and Australia ...

Back in the '80s a guy got on a flight to Oakland. After a few hours he was wondering why they hadn't landed yet. Turned out he'd boarded a flight to Auckland.

ISTR that the man wanted to fly from San Francisco to Oakland, but this doesn't make sense to me because it's only 20 miles. I think the oddness made it stick in my head. Googling, I did find one reference to this story that said he did want to make the short hop by air.

But further googling revealed that the man in the 1985 incident was named Michael Lewis, and was flying home from Germany with a stopover at LAX, and he realised his error ten minutes after take-off. Cite.

[alphaboi867]

Originally Posted by Johnny L.A.

Back in the '80s a guy got on a flight to Oakland. After a few hours he was wondering why they hadn't landed yet. Turned out he'd boarded a flight to Auckland...

Stephanie & Michelle did the same thing on an episode of Full House.