I understand but the irritation, at least for me, mostly went away when I thought of “The East” and “The West” in terms of longitude 0.0000 with West of that being “The West” and East of it being “The East”. It still put most of France and all of Germany, Italy, and the Scandinavian countries in “The East” but it was close enough that my irritation was manageable.
It’s not Eurocentric; the center is Jerusalem.
Look at it from an Old World point of view: You knew of things roughly from Spain to India. Coincidentally enough, the right border of the cartoon is about where that falls. Draw an imaginary vertical line that goes through the coast of Portugal; Jerusalem is about halfway between the imaginary line and the right border.
Oh, other thing related that amuses me is all the people on the East coast of the U.S. refering to Chicago and similar longitudes as being “out west” or the “mid-west” Where I”m from Chicago is “back east”.
And once a waitress in Conneticut asked where I was from and I told her Seattle. Her response was “Oh, that’s out near California and Disneyland, right?” Yeah, right. Close enough.
“It’s not Eurocentric; the center is Jerusalem.”
Right.
That’s why Turkey is part of the Near East.
“Oh, other thing related that amuses me is all the people on the East coast of the U.S. referring to Chicago and similar longitudes as being “out west†or the “mid-west†Where Iâ€m from Chicago is “back eastâ€.”
That always annoyed the hell out of me too. I mean, it’s a freaking holdover from the 1700’s. You’d think we’d have updated our lexicon by now…
“And once a waitress in Connecticut asked where I was from and I told her Seattle. Her response was “Oh, that’s out near California and Disneyland, right?†Yeah, right. Close enough.”
I’m from Nevada. I always got “Oh, you’re from Vegas?” as if Vegas is the only town in Nevada…
(For the Record, I’m from Northern Nevada, specifically a small town called Battle Mountain, which is approximately 406 miles north of Vegas. It’s not quite as far away from Vegas as you can get in Nevada, but it’s close).
It’s just a matter of tradition. “The West” is sometimes broadened to include western europe and the US
It’s all relative to where you are on the map. No matter where you go, there you are.
I understand but the irritation, at least for me, mostly went away when I thought of “The East” and “The West” in terms of longitude 0.0000 with West of that being “The West” and East of it being “The East”. It still put most of France and all of Germany, Italy, and the Scandinavian countries in “The East” but it was close enough that my irritation was manageable.
It’s not Eurocentric; the center is Jerusalem.
Look at it from an Old World point of view: You knew of things roughly from Spain to India. Coincidentally enough, the right border of the cartoon is about where that falls. Draw an imaginary vertical line that goes through the coast of Portugal; Jerusalem is about halfway between the imaginary line and the right border.
Here’s one example of such a map
Oh, other thing related that amuses me is all the people on the East coast of the U.S. refering to Chicago and similar longitudes as being “out west” or the “mid-west” Where I”m from Chicago is “back east”.
And once a waitress in Conneticut asked where I was from and I told her Seattle. Her response was “Oh, that’s out near California and Disneyland, right?” Yeah, right. Close enough.
“It’s not Eurocentric; the center is Jerusalem.”
Right.
That’s why Turkey is part of the Near East.
“Oh, other thing related that amuses me is all the people on the East coast of the U.S. referring to Chicago and similar longitudes as being “out west†or the “mid-west†Where Iâ€m from Chicago is “back eastâ€.”
That always annoyed the hell out of me too. I mean, it’s a freaking holdover from the 1700’s. You’d think we’d have updated our lexicon by now…
“And once a waitress in Connecticut asked where I was from and I told her Seattle. Her response was “Oh, that’s out near California and Disneyland, right?†Yeah, right. Close enough.”
I’m from Nevada. I always got “Oh, you’re from Vegas?” as if Vegas is the only town in Nevada…
(For the Record, I’m from Northern Nevada, specifically a small town called Battle Mountain, which is approximately 406 miles north of Vegas. It’s not quite as far away from Vegas as you can get in Nevada, but it’s close).
It’s just a matter of tradition. “The West” is sometimes broadened to include western europe and the US
It’s all relative to where you are on the map. No matter where you go, there you are.