Hi, Michael -
I tried filling in the country names for Europe. And, I'm
thrilled to say I got them all right, including the areas
included in former USSR and the former Yugoslavia. Whew!Â
When I was on the plane to defend my dissertation (May,
1974), I took Eastern Airlines from Gainesville, FL, where I
was teaching at the University of Florida up to Seattle.Â
The cabin crew had a contest to name the state capitals that
began with "A". When I told the story to my committee, the
FIRST question they asked me in my exam was what the state
capitals beginning with "A" were and what I got for a
prize. I told them and showed them the prize (a set of
prints of all the airliners that Eastern had ever flown)
which I'd brought with me to the exam. Of all the people on
the plane, only I and a fifth-grader got the whole list of
five cities. Pretty poor, I think.
For those of you who don't know, the answers follow my
signature block below.
The important thing is that we geographers HAVE to hold up our
end. Everybody THINKS this is what we do, just like everybody
thinks historians in the US know all the presidents and vice
presidents in order and that, in the UK, historians know all
the kings, queens, and prime ministers in order.
If I hadn't known the right answers, I never would have heard
the end of it from my geographic buddies which is why I LOVED
going to the Geography Bowl at the last AAG meeting (they
never had those when I was an undergrad, or grad, student)!