Today’s news reported that a plane crashed off Comoros.
How many folk knew where that was without looking it up? Not I.
If you knew, in what context did you gain your familarity?
I didn’t know for sure, but I guessed the correct ocean… that particular ocean is my default guess for any island that I don’t immediately know the location of.
I had heard of it before (a hijacked plane crashed off the coast there a few years ago), and I knew that it was somewhere in the Indian Ocean, but that’s about it.
I knew where the islands were because I was familiar with mercenary Bob Denard and his participation in a number of local coups d’etat.
I sort of did, but only because I was playing a geography game a few weeks ago.
I’ve been playing a lot of Sporcle games lately… 
Countries of the World and Countries of Africa specifically.
Oh, also I got a postcard from there from my aunt a few years ago. She apparently made a a quick side trip over while visiting her friends in the Seychelles.
I couldn’t tell you what ocean it’s in, but if someone asked me “where is Comoros?” I would respond, “They’re islands off the coast of Africa.” I knew about them because I am interested in flags, and my interest in flags eventually lead to me figuring out roughly where each nation in the world is.
I could have said almost exactly; I’m interested in remote (or little heard-of) islands, etc.
I knew where the Comoros were from reading about coelacanths. They catch a lot of them there.
^^
This.
I knew, but then I’m good at geography. Plus the coups there probably get reported on a lot more here than in the West.
I did, probably first from, of all things, John Keegan’s ( editor ) World Armies, first edition circa ~1979. That or via the coelacanth. In my mind it I equate it with said coelacanths, extreme poverty and political instability.
I did, without a doubt, from the Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego computer game.
I figured if I ever want to be on Jeopardy! I would need to study geography. So started with studying African geography and I became familiar with Comoros.
I should have known, because I had to learn it in high school (my geography book was French and listed French colonies), but for some reason I was thinking that they were much closer to the Maldives than Africa.
Yep I did, I used to follow coups there, Mayotte is still French basically because it’s Christian, and the rest are Muslim. But the other three islands don’t like each other much.
The Comoros and the Seychilles are firmly etched in my memory, from way back when. But I like maps. 
We were planning a vacation to Madagascar about 10 years ago, and the Lonely Planet guide combines Madagascar and Comoros. Still haven’t gone yet…
I knew, only because I once bought a large silver coin from there, the only one they ever struck(1890). Paid quite a bit and sold it for a profit.
Thanks, all.
The news - and this thread - inspired me to bring this up at the dinner table, after which my kids and I read a few pages on the internet about coelacanths!
(Both kids knew they were islands, but guessed Mediterranean. Son knew it from reading military history, daughter from discussion of coelacanths in bio class.)