Please note that Taiwan is a completely different country than Thailand.

When I first started dating Sophia and told people she was from Taiwan, I was amazed at the number of people who responded with things they'd heard about Bangkok. (Note for the clueless: Bangkok is the capital of Thailand.)

Even more people, immediately after hearing me say "Taiwan", repeated it as "Thailand". For people my age, perhaps hearing the name "Thailand" on the TV news so frequently in the 60's (because of its proximity to Viet Nam) indelibly burned that name into their drug-fried brains. Younger people are apparently no longer educated in geography (or history, or science, and certainly not in spelling) like my generation was.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. My friend Liz Atiles, who's from Puerto Rico, tells me that some people think that's right next to New Jersey.

The wife of my former co-worker Brad Smith is also from Puerto Rico. Brad mentioned around the office one day that he would be going to Puerto Rico over Christmas Break to visit his wife's family, and one of our college student workers asked "Are you going to fly or drive?" (Note for the completely clueless: About a thousand miles of ocean separate Puerto Rico from the U.S. mainland.) (Additional note for the terminally stupid: No, there's no bridge.)