A Geographic Riff on 'News from a Distant Land'
"...The Middle East sits on the same latitude as the Coachella Valley..."
This sentence in Wrymouth's post put me in mind of a fun exercise I've been doing since I was a kid with my first globe* - overlaying US cities elsewhere in the world based on their latitude...you learn a lot:
1) How far north Europe is:
Paris = International Falls, MN
Rome = Cleveland
Madrid = New York
The sunny playground of the French/Italian Riviera is about on the same latitude as Boston or Milwaukee
2) How far south the US is:
Houston = Cairo
Palm Springs = Kirkuk
Miami = New Dehli
San Francisco = Tehran**
Look at a world map or Google Earth - this is great for rainy-day fun, or at-work goofing off.
* Asked for and received as a Christmas gift when I was like 12.
**Go ahead righties, it's a great set-up: right across the letters, over the heart of the plate.
Trivia time, 2:
One of my routine queries in class, to my students: If one were to head due east from here, where in Europe would you end up?
Answer: nowhere. Europe is entirely north of our latitude (counting as Palm Desert, CA). You fetch up somewhere on the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, I believe in Israel.
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