Geography-related Questions 31-40

THE QUESTION:
G40: Why do many Americans feel they are so “great”? They seem to think they are better than anyone else, but I feel many of the things accomplished there are by foreigners who come to U.S. universities. I love America, but sometimes the people seem cocky and unwilling to accept they are wrong or not as skilled as someone from another country. Why is this, or am I off base?
POSTED OCT. 23, 1998
18
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THE QUESTION:
G39: My name is Brian Lake and will remain exactly that wherever I may travel and in all countries I may visit, for however short or long. So why do cities and nations have different spellings whenever referred to in other countries? One example of numerous instances: Deutschland is known as such to its inhabitants. Yet we insist on calling it Germany. Why?
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Brian L., Australian <brlake@ezinet.com.au>, Adelaide, Australia

ANSWER 1:
In the case of Germany, I think I can give a brief response. The Germans were the first small people/tribe the Romans encountered when crossing the Rhine around 50 B.C. The name just stuck and was exported by the Romans all over the world. The French call us Alleman, because the Germans they had to do with were mostly of that tribal union – pretty much comparable to the political entities you could observe in the Indian nations of Native Americans. Finally the term “Deutsch” goes back to Otto I, a German Kaiser around 900 A.D. who first referred to all his subject as being Teutsch. In the case of geographical descriptions such as Munich – Muenchen, Cologne – Koeln, I think it is often just a matter of laziness and can actually be seen as an indicator of the willingness of a language entity to absorb influences from other languages.
POSTED OCT. 26, 1998
Rob, 28, German, gay <rob_ma@hotmail.com>, Austin, TX
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THE QUESTION:
G38: How do black people feel about the Civil War reenactments that go on down here in the South? I think they are weird and that something racial is behind them. Do black people feel that way?
POSTED OCT. 20, 1998
Catspaw8, 40, single white female <catspaw8@gte.net>, Tampa, FL

ANSWER 1:
I have a few friends who participate in these reenactments They tell me that they do encounter a few participants who are a little too into it from a race-related perspective, but most were out there for fun and an odd bonding ritual. Keep in mind there are reenactments of battles from the Revolutionary War as well, and I am certain these are not driven by a hatred of the British. The friends I know who participate are just Civil War buffs and know that the Civil War was about a whole lot more than slavery. They really get into the tactical aspects of the war, rather than the cause.
POSTED OCT. 26, 1998
D.S., 29, white <dash@netside.com>, Columbia, SC
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THE QUESTION:
G37: While growing up in the South I’ve often noticed that when two males attend a movie together, they often leave a seat open between them. Is this a regional practice or is it seen throughout the United States? What is the reason? I don’t remember seeing females do the same.
POSTED OCT. 20, 1998
Merriman, white Southern female <idnod@hotmail.com>, MS

ANSWER 1:
I’ve grown up in the Chicago area and now live in California, and I’ve seen the same in both areas. As an adult male, I usually leave a seat between any person unless it’s very crowded or I’m sitting next to my wife. Two of the reasons are I would be bumping shoulders, arms and legs if they were in the next seat, and there would be competition for the armrest. Of course, if it is an attractive woman, those would be the very same reasons I would sit next to her.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Rob, white male, 35, San Jose, CA

FURTHER NOTICE:
I grew up in Nebraska and have seen many men leave a seat between them at a movie. It has been explained to me that this is so both will have full access to armrests. No need to share. I’ve only done this once in my life and did find that it was nice to have the armrests to myself. Whether or not it is also an issue of intimacy is a question probably best left to the larger group.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Patrick K., 26, white male <pkinner@upo.com>, Miami, FL

FURTHER NOTICE 2:
I live in the mid-Atlantic area (Northern Virginia) and I do the same thing when seeing a movie with a male friend. Why? We both want more space.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Racerx, 37 <spectre_rx@yahoo.com>, Fairfax, VA

FURTHER NOTICE 3:
A lot of people would kiddingly call this the “heterosexual” seat. That is, a signal that the two men are not “together.” My roommates and I used to go see a lot of movies, and if possible we would leave a seat between us. However, we did it mostly because we were stocky and needed the space. Also, movie theater chairs are usually cramped, and I like my own armrest. In retrospect, it could have been partially because of subconscious discomfort with being so close to another male.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Taran6, 26, straight male <Taran6@juno.com>, San Diego, CA

FURTHER NOTICE 4:
I think it has to do with the fear of someone thinking the guys are gay. My friends and I never leave a seat between us in a movie. I was raised in the North and currently live in the South. No seat splitting here.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Brian <dutting@hotmail.com>, Jacksonville, FL

FURTHER NOTICE 5:
This practice is not unique to the South. When I was growing up in New York, guys who went to the movies together always kept an empty seat between them if they could. They’d put their popcorn and drinks on it, but that’s not the reason for the seat. Guys laughingly called it “the fag seat” or the “I’m not a fag” seat. Insecure blue-collar New Yorkers that we were, we thought it was somehow unmasculine to sit next to a male friend. Girls sit next to their female friends without thinking twice, but young males are often terrified of doing anything that might make them appear gay.
POSTED OCT. 22, 1998
Astorian, straight male, Austin, TX

FURTHER NOTICE 6:
Personal space! If there is the option to spread out and be totally relaxed while you enjoy the movie, then people are going to take it. It’s not because we’re afraid of being gay. It’s just that if I want to stretch my arms in the middle of the movie, I don’t think my friend would like it if I punched him in the face in the process.
POSTED NOV. 10, 198
Paul, 19 <pwajbel@vt.edu>, Blacksburg, Va
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THE QUESTION:
G36: Is there a Confederate flag on the Statehouse of Oklahoma?
POSTED OCT. 15, 1998
John, 54, white male, Sumter, SC

ANSWER 1:
Oklahoma did not become a state until nearly 40 years after the defeat of the Confederacy, so no, there is no Confederate symbol on the Oklahoma state flag. A few Southern states, including Georgia, still feature the Stars and Bars on their state flags.
POSTED NOV. 5, 1998
Astorian <Astorian@aol.com>, Austin, TX
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THE QUESTION:
G35: I’m from Texas but live in the Northeast. When people find out I’m from Texas, they invariably ask me why I don’t have a Texas accent or feel a need to point out that I don’t have one. Do non-Texans really think we all have accents? And why do they feel the need to point out that I (and many others) don’t have one?
POSTED OCT. 7, 1998
Alan, Texan <Alan_S_C@yahoo.com>, New York

ANSWER 1:
Yes, just as we expect all Southerners to sound like Jethro, Northerners to sound like Andrew Dice Clay, people from Wisconsin and Minnesota to say “you betcha'” and Southern Californians to speak “Valley Speak.” Don’t be offended it is just a further means of stereotyping, and less hurtful than most. I am from South Carolina and speak to people in every region of the country on a daily basis, and most are amazed I have no accent. It is neither a source of pride nor a mark of shame. I might point out these dialectical differences are not unique to the United States, but occur in every region of every country in the world.
POSTED OCT. 26, 1998
D.S., 29, Southerner <dash@netside.com>, Columbia, SC
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THE QUESTION:
G34: Why is it that when people from non-Southern states hear my Texas accent, they seem to automatically assume I am one of the following: A) stupid, B) a racist or C) backward, probably due to inbreeding of a rather extensive nature?
POSTED SEPT. 29, 1998
Maybelle June Bodine <bodine@slip.net>, San Jose, CA

ANSWER 1:
I think this is another of the evils in modern society that can be laid at Hollywood’s doorstep. If you want to make a show about well-educated, well-adjusted, attractive young professionals, you set it in New York or Chicago or L.A. If you want to make a show about people who drive around in an ugly orange American car with the doors welded shut, foiling the evil plans of the crooked local Judge and Sheriff, you set it in the South. And then, to add insult to injury, you give the strongest Southern accents to the stupidest or most crooked characters.
POSTED NOV. 12, 1998
Mark, Alexandria, VA
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THE QUESTION:
G33: Why do Americans cut their food, then put down the knife and put the fork in their right hand? Are we the only ones who eat like this? Why don’t we eat like the Europeans?
POSTED SEPT. 29, 1998
N. Baugh, Temecula, Ca.

ANSWER 1:
I’m Canadian and eat like that, too (cut up the food with the knife, then put it down to use the fork with my right). I think it’s just what one’s comfortable with.
POSTED OCT. 26, 1998
C.C. <petitecosette@yahoo.com>, Kingston, Ontario, Canada

FURTHER NOTICE:
I read a studied response to this question somewhere and cannot recall it exactly. It seems this began in England or the early Colonies as a deliberate distinction between the upper and lower classes. But the exact reasoning eludes me. I think it had something to do with the grace of the switching movement as opposed to the inverted fork in one hand and knife in the other, which can appear to be a feeding frenzy.
POSTED DEC. 2, 1998
59-year-old WASP of English descent <fred.whitaker@lmco.com>, CO
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THE QUESTION:
G32: Why are some American women so oversexed?
POSTED SEPT. 25, 1998
Johnny, 37, Bangkok, Thailand

ANSWER 1:
For someone to be “oversexed,” there has to first be some kind of norm to compare them to. My experience has been that different people, both men and women, have differing levels of interest in sex at different times – I haven’t noticed anything particularly different about American women in general (and I am one). American culture does tend to be more permissive with regard to female sexuality than some, and more neurotic than many as well.
POSTED SEPT. 30, 1998
Catherine <tylik@eskimo.com>, Woodinville, WA

FURTHER NOTICE:
Being an American woman, I found this question extremely offensive, and ironic, given that Thailand is famous for its brothels full of boys and girls available for the sexual pleasures of men. I am also aware that many foreigners believe that what they see on the American media is the truth, and that real-life is nothing like Melrose Place on TV. It is difficult to answer this question without a frame of reference, but my best response is that most Americans do not have the same cultural or religious restrictions that would keep them from enjoying a life that some may consider “oversexed.” Incidentally, Europeans find us Puritanical. How’s that for irony?
POSTED OCT. 23, 1998
Lynda, 28, female, CT
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THE QUESTION:
G31: When naming the days of the week, the English, French and Germans derived the names from the moon, sun, etc. English-speaking people use January (named after the two-faced Roman god Janus), February (after februa, a Roman festival), March (after Mars), April (from Latin aprilis, latter) , May (from Maius, goddess of increase), June (from the Roman Junius), July (from Julius Caesar), August (from Augustus Caesar), September (from the Roman number for seven), October (from the Roman number for eight), November (from the Roman number for nine) and December (from the Roman number for 10). And in Lithuanian, the translations are first day, second day, etc. What have other cultures named the days of the week after?
POSTED SEPT. 23, 1998 (UPDATED FEB. 24, 1999)
A. Urbonas, 45, Lithuanian <urbonas@agric.gov.ab.ca>, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ANSWER 1:
I took some German classes, and I thought it was the neatest thing that the German word for Wednesday is “Mittwoch,” which translates to “middle of the week”!
POSTED SEPT. 25, 1998
Stephen S., 31, San Antonio, TX

FURTHER NOTICE:
In English, the days of the week are named for the sun (Sunday), the moon (Monday), several Norse gods (Tuesday comes from Tyr, Norse god of war; Wednesday comes from Odin, Norse god of the heavens; Thursday comes from Thor, Norse god of thunder; and Friday comes from Freya), and the Roman god Saturn (Saturday). In French, most of the days are named after Roman gods. Tuesday is Mardi (named after Mars, Roman god of war), Wednesday is Mercredi, named after Mercury, the Roman messenger god; Thursday is Jeudi, named after Jupiter, the king of the Roman gods; Friday is Vendredi, named after the goddess Venus. Saturday is Samedi (Saturn, perhaps).
POSTED SEPT. 30, 1998
Astorian <Astorian@aol.com>, Austin, TX

FURTHER NOTICE 2:
In Polish the name Monday – poniedzia³ek – means that it comes after Sunday (po niedzieli). Tuesday – wtorek – means in the old language the second. Wendesday – �roda – comes from the middle (�rodek) of the week. Thursday – czwartek – is the fourth (czwarty) day, Friday – pi¹tek – the fifth (pi¹ty).
Aleksandra, Poland

FURTHER NOTICE 3:
In Japanese, the days are (starting with Sunday): Nichiyobi (sun-day); Getsuyobi (moon-day); Kayobi (fire-day); Suiyobi (water-day); Mokuyobi (tree-day); Kinyobi (gold-day); and Doyobi (earth-day). In Hawaiian, the days are (starting with Sunday): Lapule (prayer-day); Po`akahi (first day); Po`aula (second day); Po`akolu (third day); Po`aha (fourth day); Po`alima (fifth day); and Po`ono (sixth day)
POSTED FEB. 15, 1999
Dru, 33, Asian male, Honolulu , HI

FURTHER NOTICE 4:
In Judaism, the days are merely counted from Saturday, the Sabbath. For example, Sunday is Yom Rishon (“Day One”), Monday is Yom Sheni (“Day Two”), etc.
POSTED FEB. 15, 1999
Michael, 28 white male <Mjick@aol.com>, Southfield, MI

FURTHER NOTICE 5:
In Hebrew, the days of the week are (starting with Sunday) Yom Rishon (first day), Yom Sheinee (second day), Yom Shleeshee (third day), Yom Revee-ee (fourth day), Yom Chameeshee (fifth day), Yom Sheeshee (sixth day), Shabbat (the sabbath).
POSTED FEB. 22, 1999
Keren, Jewish with a big Israeli family <taxishoes@aol.com>, North Miami Beach , FL

FURTHER NOTICE 6:
In Arabic, which is I think close to Hebrew, Ahad (Sunday) is one, Athneen (Monday) is two, Thalatha (Tuesday) is three, Arbeea (Wednesday) is four and Khmees (Thursady) is five. As for Jomaa (Friday) and Sabt (Saturday), I have no idea why are they called that.
POSTED FEB. 24, 1999
Mohammad, 30, Arab male <alibaba1969@yahoo.com>, Kalamazoo, MI
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