Have you heard of the Iditarod?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I was playing Taboo last night with my family, all of whom have college educations. The word was “Sled”. I had a list of words I could not say.

So I said, “In the Iditarod, the animals race by pulling these…” (dog was not allowed)

:blank stares:

I couldn’t believe it. They don’t know what the Iditarod race is? Like, a super big race with the dogs pulling the people on sleds? Is this not common knowledge?

After the round, I asked and none of them(including one with a doctorate degree) had heard of the Iditarod.

Am I right that at least a couple of these four people should have heard of it? I thought it was well known.

2

I even follow some of the teams on social media. :o

3

Very well known. I can forgive people easily for not knowing what the Barkley Marathons is but the Iditarod? It’s been in the press for decades.

4

You shouldn’t have pronounced it “Idiotroad.”

5

No. Four is a small enough number that it’s quite likely to find a group of four people who share a somewhat unexpected characteristic purely by random chance.

In North America, is it more likely that a randomly selected group of four college-educated people will contain at least one person who’s heard of the Iditarod than that none of the four will have heard of it? Probably, IMHO. Is it seriously remarkable and bizarre that a randomly selected group of four college-educated people will not contain even one person who’s heard of the Iditarod? Not at all, IMHO.

6

Yes, first read of it in Reader’s Digest in the 1990s. Some story about how one of the racers was so famished he made a stop at a restaurant diner for breakfast and ordered over $70’ worth of eggs, ham and other such food.

7

I’ve been in Alaska a couple of times. I learned that some places, in order to fight the dark winter blues, leave their Christmas lights up until the Iditarod (early March), so I’ve always done the same.

8

Common knowledge.

9

I’ve certainly heard of it.

10

Fascinated by it …the good stuff is human endurance, human-animal bonding, women showing that they can damn well do it too. Bad stuff is that it seems like animal abuse may be involved.

So I don’t know what to think. But I sure know it’s out there.

11

Yes, I’ve heard of the Iditatrod, AND I listen to NPR (which does at least a couple of human interest stories about it each year, AND, I’ve seen the movie Balto numerous times on the Disney Channel, which planted in my mind the thought that the Iditarod and Balto’s claim to fame were connected.

Would you have been allowed to use the word “puppies?” Or grown up puppies?

12

The OP gives his location as “the earth”, but in Chinese characters. So we should consider the possibility that he’s not in the US or Canada.

In which case, the possiblity of his circle including many people who have never heard of this race is pretty high. I have lived in Europe and Australia, and I have never heard of it.

13

I’m a 58 yr old Australian and can’t remember a time when I DIDN’T know of the Iditarod.

Universal common knowledge.

14

Iditarod is one of my favorite words. But OP, sometimes things like this happen, with things that feel like they should common knowledge. I had a conversation that gave me a similar WTF feeling when I realized I was talking to three people who had never even heard of The Dark Crystal, let alone had an opinion about it.

15

I knew I’d heard the word before but, if you’d asked me what it was, I would have had no idea. Now, if we’re playing that kind of games and you mention “Jack Lon-” I’ll jump with “White fang! Sleds! Alaska!” before you end the name, but I know a lot of people who wouldn’t be able to pick London the writer from London the town… we all have whatever holes in our knowledge we happen to have.

16

Should be general, common knowledge. I have known about it since I was a child growing up in Florida.

17

I had the same reaction when I was talking to a group of people and not a single one of them knew what the Northern Lights were (or the aurora borealis).

In a vacuum, I couldn’t tell you what “Iditarod” is. But once you start making reference to Alaska and sled dogs, I’d know right away what you’re talking about.

18

It became more well known after a 1995 movie about Balto, a dog who made part of a trip to deliver medicine to Nome via dog sled in 1925. That trip inspired the Iditarod.

Balto - Wikipedia

19

Dog sled racing is huge in my country, so of course I’ve heard of it.

20

When I was living in Jacksonville, FL in the 80s, there was a local show on the public radio station that played during afternoon drive time. The host always featured news on the Iditarod when it was going on. I’m not sure if I’d heard of it before then, tho.

I just asked my 30-y/o SIL - he’s heard of it - he even looked it up when he heard about it.