APRIL 30, 2023 – (Cont.) Having escaped confinement, however, the World was now in open defiance of the laws of the universe. In reaction to my errant toe, the Big Ball shot across the carpet and rotated clumsily into a lamp stand, then like a billiard ball, banked left, straight for a chair. POW! In an instant it changed course again and aimed for a wall. In a cosmic flash, human hands (my own) scooped up the World and with the power of Zeus, saved it from extinction.
With ease I repositioned the World onto its South Pole and slipped the North Pole back into place. Atlas, Archimedes and Zeus I remained in my delusions, but in the reality of my geography nerd-om, I was drawn in by this newly stabilized World. While time, as well, stood still, I hovered over the globe and turned it slowly to examine detail features I’d never noticed before.
For starters . . .
. . . Eighteen months ago, my oldest sister moved from Boston to Tallahassee, to be near her oldest daughter and family. Anyone who knows Florida knows that Tallahassee is a world away from Miami, the Keys—“South Florida,” where the sunshine is as bright as the hurricanes are strong. But as my fingers walked around the World, I was amazed to see that north Florida is significantly south of the heart of . . . Algeria . . . and lies at the same latitude as Cairo, Egypt. Minneapolis, meanwhile, along with Milan, Italy, are exactly halfway between the equator and the North Pole. The capitals of Norway (Oslo), Sweden (Stockholm), and Finland (Helsinki) are on the same latitudinal line as Anchorage, Alaska, which, even as a resident of the North Star State, I think of as way, way up north. The capital of Denmark (Copenhagen), is south of the other Nordic capitals but at the same latitude as York Factory, Manitoba on the southwestern shore of Hudson Bay—and where polar bears roam.
If California has always been “far out,” Hawaii is “way out.” In latitude it lies below Cuba and in longitude is east of Tahiti. The 45th parallel north bisects both North America and the Eurasian land mass into almost perfect halves. The 45th parallel south, however, cuts through very little terra firma: the very skinny end of South America and a sliver of the South Island of New Zealand. The only other land besides a few pin-prick islands beyond 45 degrees south is Antarctica.
When you turn more light on the subject and inspect for islands, the World—and its history—become quite strange. Most of the dots in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans are identified as “(Fr.)” or “(Br.),” but “(N.Z.)” gets into the action, as well us “(U.S.),” of course, and my favorite—the island of Bouvet—in the extreme South Atlantic just east of the Prime Meridian and around 50 degrees south, a gazillion miles from nowhere, is . . . you guessed it: “owned” by Norway.
The Azores, Portuguese attractions in the mid-Atlantic west of Iceland, are closer to New York than New York is to California. As the crow flies, the closest distance between Africa and South America is about the same as what separates New York from Miami or Minneapolis from New York.
In the Far East, Tokyo lies slightly to the south if Seoul and is east of a big chunk of extreme, northeastern Russia; Manila lines up with Tainan, the capital of Taiwan, and Cocos Island, hanging out alone in the Indian Ocean and “owned” by Australia, lies west of Vietnam.
The island of Madagascar is huge by island standards: its length is only slightly less than the distance from Minneapolis and New Orleans. The east coastline is the longest straight-edge in the world.
If Napoleon thought his exile in St. Helena was isolated, he could’ve done worse on Tristan de Cuhna, well to the south, if that’s possible, or farther south yet on Gough, both “owned” by the Brits. The South Sandwich Islands, also British, are closer to Antarctica, but heading toward the inhospitable ends-of-the-earth part of South America. These windblown South Atlantic outposts lead one to look for the Falkland Islands or “Islas Malvinas,” according to the Argentines, if you remember the Falkland War back in 1982. I always thought of the Falklands/Malvinas as lying way out at sea, but on the World at my feet, they look close enough to South America to reach in a kayak, though I wouldn’t be the one to try.
I could write indefinitely about interesting and surprising trivia featuring geographical relationships, but I’ll reserve those discoveries to your own exploration of a World at your feet. If your World wobbles, you know how to reach me.
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© 2023 by Eric Nilsson
