The first time the Fox News reporter said tonight that Alabama was close to the Maryland border, I thought either I misheard her or she was speaking too quickly and she got confused. Or at least I hoped that was the case. Unfortunately, she repeated the same statement an hour later!
Alabama is close to Maryland like Massachusetts is close to South Carolina.
While both Alabama and Maryland are south of the Mason-Dixon line, I don't believe that suffices to make them geographically "close." I have this theory that northerners believe the southern United States are as squashed together as the northern United States and hence, all southern states must be close together.
Silly parochial city-dwellers! Where I come from, we were required to learn where all the states are to pass the second grade.
I'm not sure if this is what you heard or something different, but there was initial confusion when the Montgomery, Ala., police spoke to someone in Maryland, and whoever took the call thought he was calling from MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. (right next to D.C.) Another stupid geographical idiocy: the mayor of Montgomery said on TV that he was glad to be of help to those "people in New England" who had been under the gun, as it were. (I grew up just south of Montgomery, and am used to its mayors not being such bright bulbs.)
Posted by: John Rosenberg on October 26, 2002 04:53 PMCNN isn't the only news source to make a geographical howler. I remember some years back the New York Times described the Mercier Bridge in Montreal as connecting New York with Canada by crossing the Niagara River. And that involved the Times' home state!
Posted by: Bruce on October 29, 2002 02:53 PM