# "Countries have names - should they also have surnames?" - and other confounding questions...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 10, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381 "2014-03-10T21:11:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/1 "2014-03-10T21:11:38Z")
I think we’ve had threads like this before (I think maybe I even started one a while back), but I think this is a fun idea, so…
I was thinking today about press conferences and other public address events where the speaker finishes his/her speech and opens the floor to Any Questions - how it would be quite fun to deliberately derail the flow by asking a confounding question - a question that sounds superficially sensible, but can’t actually be understood or answered.
So… What’s your derailing question?
And: Where would you like to see it asked?
Mine would be: _Countries have names - do you think they should also have surnames?_
And I would like to ask it at any UKIP press event.
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### Author:  [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)
#### Post date: [March 10, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/2 "2014-03-10T22:16:00Z")
“Did you ever find Bugs Bunny attractive when he’d put on a dress and play a girl bunny?”
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### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/3 "2014-03-11T00:26:43Z")
I’ve been listening to a lot of ancient Greek and Roman writings lately (I know, I’m absolutely killer at parties). Either Pliny the Elder or Heroditus (I forget which) mentions several times as he’s doing his survey of the world’s civilizations that various city-states have surnames.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/4 "2014-03-11T00:44:04Z")
_Ameríka Stórabretlandsdóttir_
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/5 "2014-03-11T02:22:19Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#):
>
> _Ameríka Stórabretlandsdóttir_
Oh sure, go all Icelandic on us…
[sub]Weirdly, I think I understood that…[/sub]
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/6 "2014-03-11T12:25:24Z")
North and South Korea, they already have last names.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/7 "2014-03-11T14:07:43Z")
Our country’s surname is Vespucci. But we rarely use it because we’re an informal people.
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### Author:  [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/8 "2014-03-11T14:13:17Z")
How long is a kilowatt-hour?
If laughter is the best medicine, why are doctors so bad at telling jokes?
What colour is yellow?
When it rains at night, how come the raindrops know which way to fall if they can’t see the ground?
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/9 "2014-03-11T14:36:59Z")
Why does my foot hurt?
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### Author:  [@Esox\_Lucius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esox_Lucius)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/10 "2014-03-11T17:06:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> _Countries have names - do you think they should also have surnames?_
But countries already have a [Suriname](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suriname).
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/11 "2014-03-11T20:07:51Z")
“what are your thoughts about the effort to convert our American calendars to the metric system?” -any political event.
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### Author:  [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/12 "2014-03-11T22:08:41Z")
Why do we drive on the parkway but park on the driveway?
How come they don’t make books for dyslexics by printing all the text backwards?
If someone on Facebook announces a death in their family, is it wrong to click the “Like” button?
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### Author:  [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/13 "2014-03-11T22:46:11Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#):
>
> Why do we drive on the parkway but park on the driveway?
I see a ban hammer coming…
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [March 11, 2014, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/14 "2014-03-11T22:51:00Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#):
>
> How long is a kilowatt-hour?
>
> If laughter is the best medicine, why are doctors so bad at telling jokes?
>
> What colour is yellow?
>
> When it rains at night, how come the raindrops know which way to fall if they can’t see the ground?
As to your last question: uh, gravity?!
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/15 "2014-03-12T01:08:47Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> As to your last question: uh, gravity?!
Raindrops can \*see \*gravity at night??? That’s so cool!
This thread is going to have that ban hammer going like a good game of Wac-a-Mole!
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/16 "2014-03-12T01:49:24Z")
Why is pointing out the obvious a banable offense?
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/17 "2014-03-12T01:58:13Z")
Where do babies come from?
Why do they serve French bread at Italian restaurants?
If Donald Duck normally wears a jacket and no pants, why does he wrap a towel around his waist when he steps out of the shower?
What does “14 k of g in a f p d” mean?
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### Author:  [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/18 "2014-03-12T03:46:30Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Where do babies come from?
>
> Why do they serve French bread at Italian restaurants?
>
> If Donald Duck normally wears a jacket and no pants, why does he wrap a towel around his waist when he steps out of the shower?
>
> What does “14 k of g in a f p d” mean?
4 questions in desperate need of an answer!
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/19 "2014-03-12T11:38:31Z")
Hey, Ed – ahem, hey, Cecil – you might want to keep this thread in mind for the next time you want to add a paragraph to a Dope column like you’ve done before (at least once, probably a few times), you know, with the paragraph title like “Questions we’re still pondering” (which you then show to be a sarcastic untruth – you don’t ponder them for a moment.)
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### Author:  [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)
#### Post date: [March 12, 2014, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/countries-have-names-should-they-also-have-surnames-and-other-confounding-questions/683381/20 "2014-03-12T11:39:40Z")
> [@etv78](#):
>
> Why is pointing out the obvious a banable offense?
Well put. Such questions are the bane of all our existence, but they aren’t bannable.
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