# Geographical mental images you can't shake even though they are incorrect. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 27, 2014, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459 "2014-02-27T23:20:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/101 "2014-03-05T13:09:41Z")
It’s a shorter drive from Detroit to Atlanta than from Detroit to Ironwood, MI. There are no natural lakes in Ohio other than Erie. The downhill skiers in Sochi had a perfect view of Sarah Palin’s house (no, not really). Iceland has a more hospitable climate than Greenland. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/102 "2014-03-05T14:42:55Z")
> [@SeldomSeen](#): > > It always seems to me that Pennsylvania ought to have a coastline. It doesn’t, of course, New Jersey is in the way. It does have a deepwater port, I believe on the Delaware River. A thing that I didn’t realise – once again, was sent to the atlas for verification. A rather analogous thing in Europe: Antwerp is an important port, but it’s not on Belgium’s short North Sea coast – it’s some way inland, on the Schelde river. You have to sail up the Schelde estuary, through the Netherlands, before crossing the border into Belgium and reaching Antwerp. (Shakespeare, of course, seems to have thought that the modern-day Czech Republic [Bohemia] had a seacoast; but the general consensus is, he was just lousy at geography.) ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/103 "2014-03-05T14:46:18Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Iceland has a more hospitable climate than Greenland. We’re given to understand that Greenland’s name, resulted from an early exercise in public relations: the Norse discoverers and promoters of the region – seeking for further settlement of it – named it in a way suggesting that it was more lush and welcoming, than was truly the case. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/104 "2014-03-05T15:35:42Z")
I love maps and I like to think I know pretty much where most places are, but I still tend to think of Bermuda as being a Caribbean island. And I used to get the Maldives and the Seychelles mixed up, but I think I know which is which now! The idea that California is partly north of Canada does make my head hurt a bit, though. And the idea that here, in the south of England, I live further north than most Canadians… ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/105 "2014-03-05T15:56:41Z")
When I was in Guatemala, I met a North American guy who asked me where I was from. I said Maine. He said he was from Canada, and I said, “Oh, our neighbors to the South!” He startled for a moment. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/106 "2014-03-05T16:02:30Z")
I have trouble picturing the North American continent without Maine hanging out there, with water delineating its north and west boundaries. I know Canada is glommed onto it there, but the outline of the US is in my head, isolated from its neighbors. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/107 "2014-03-05T17:45:52Z")
I always place Ireland farther south relative to Britain than it is. When I think of Liverpool, Manchester, and Sheffield I imagine them as as far north as Belfast but they’re at roughly the same latitude as Dublin. I also imagine London to be roughly the same latitude as Dublin when it is quite a bit farther south. In contrast, I place the Isle of Man farther south than its actual location, imagining it is just a wee bit north of the Dublin-Holyhead run. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/108 "2014-03-05T17:46:46Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#): > > Speaking as a non-American, I struggled to work out why people were giving her so much shit for noting you could see Russia from her house - my understanding is that, at its narrowest point, there’s only about 50 miles between Alaska and Russia aross the Bering Strait (and Alaska used to be Russian territory until they sold it to the Americans to stop the British getting it). So I get she probably couldn’t _literally_ see Russia from her house, but as a piece of rhetorical hyperbole it seemed perfectly cromulent to me and I never understood why it was the subject of ridicule until now. Fifty miles is much further than anyone can see across the ocean. You can’t see the mainland of Russia from the mainland of Alaska. There is a tiny, remote Alaskan island, Little Diomede, in the middle of the Bering Strait, which would is uninhabited were it not for a small US border garrison, from which you can see another small, remote island, Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia, and which would also be uninhabited were it not for a small Russian border garrison. So yes, technically it is true that you can see Russia from Alaska, but for all practical purposes it is nonsense. from which ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/109 "2014-03-05T19:33:46Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I still find it odd that you can fly straight north from Canada and eventually hit Russia. Us veterans of the Cold War were always intimately aware of the reverse trip: an ICBM launched from Russia flies more-or-less north until it crosses over the polar region… same with over-the-pole bombers. The Canadians were never thrilled of being the area that short-falling missiles and destroyed bombers would be crashing. North is where the end of the world would come from. Except for those Soviet boomers off the coasts. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/110 "2014-03-05T19:47:15Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > There are no natural lakes in Ohio other than Erie. I see this factoid repeated often, it is not true. Ohio has many natural lakes, 110 of them larger than 5 acres: [http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/inland\_lakes/05\_Natural\_lakes\_in\_ohio\_1991.pdf](http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/inland_lakes/05_Natural_lakes_in_ohio_1991.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/111 "2014-03-05T19:59:58Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > I see this factoid repeated often, it is not true. Ohio has many natural lakes, 110 of them larger than 5 acres: > > [http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/inland\_lakes/05\_Natural\_lakes\_in\_ohio\_1991.pdf](http://www.epa.state.oh.us/portals/35/inland_lakes/05_Natural_lakes_in_ohio_1991.pdf) Well doggone! I stand corrected. Thanks for the info. I’ve heard this so many times I was sure that was true. Of course, Ohio still stinks. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/112 "2014-03-05T20:46:36Z")
> [@P-man](#): > > Some of my adopted state of Maryland is pretty far from DC; it goes a long way from east to west (although not as far as **my home state of Tennessee; the northeast corner of the state is almost as close to New York City as it is to Memphis**. The Tri-Cities area of northeast Tennessee is closer to Canada than Memphis. ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/113 "2014-03-05T20:55:49Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Fifty miles is much further than anyone can see across the ocean. **You can’t see the mainland of Russia from the mainland of Alaska.** There is a tiny, remote Alaskan island, Little Diomede, in the middle of the Bering Strait, which would is uninhabited were it not for a small US border garrison, from which you can see another small, remote island, Big Diomede, which belongs to Russia, and which would also be uninhabited were it not for a small Russian border garrison. > > So yes, technically it is true that you can see Russia from Alaska, but for all practical purposes it is nonsense. > > from which Actually, you can. Siberian mountains are visible from the high ground at Cape Prince of Wales, Alaska. [New York Times Cite](http://www.nytimes.com/1988/10/23/magazine/lifting-the-ice-curtain.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2014, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/114 "2014-03-05T21:35:06Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > Us veterans of the Cold War were always intimately aware of the reverse trip: an ICBM launched from Russia flies more-or-less north until it crosses over the polar region… same with over-the-pole bombers. > > The Canadians were never thrilled of being the area that short-falling missiles and destroyed bombers would be crashing. > > North is where the end of the world would come from. Except for those Soviet boomers off the coasts. This. A hundred times _this_. If the Eagle and the Bear had ever decided to dance, we would have been among the first trampled. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/115 "2014-03-06T03:17:28Z")
> [@Iggy](#): > > The Tri-Cities area of northeast Tennessee is closer to Canada than Memphis. That must be heading straight up to the top of Ohio and into Lake Erie. I always heard that growing up in Bristol, but never checked it out until now. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/116 "2014-03-06T03:43:23Z")
> [@](#): > > It always seems to me that Pennsylvania ought to have a coastline In the old soap opera _All My Children_, which was set in Pennsylvania, the state did have a coast. Nobody ever figured out how that happened. The city of Stockton, California, which is 75 miles east of San Francisco, is a deepwater port on the San Joaquin River. The ski resorts in Park City, Utah are closer to Los Angeles than the ski resorts in Northern California. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/117 "2014-03-06T03:52:12Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > In the old soap opera _All My Children_, which was set in Pennsylvania, the state did have a coast. Nobody ever figured out how that happened. But it does, as has been pointed out – on Lake Erie. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/118 "2014-03-06T03:54:53Z")
Yeah, but they weren’t in the Lake Erie part of the state, they were in the Philadelphia part of the state. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/119 "2014-03-06T03:59:21Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Yeah, but they weren’t in the Lake Erie part of the state, they were in the Philadelphia part of the state. Hmm. They couldn’t have just gone down the river then? It was a port for large ocean-going ships? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2014, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459/120 "2014-03-06T04:10:23Z")
They could have, but they didn’t. They were always visiting the Pennsylvania Sea (as fans called it) to hang out at the beach. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/geographical-mental-images-you-cant-shake-even-though-they-are-incorrect/682459.md?page=7)