For years now, comparisons of the US to individual European states has troubled me. Primarily because in terms of GDP, population, and geographic size, the individual US states make for a more apples-to-apples comparison than the entirety of the union.

So, why in the midst of this global pandemic are we still comparing US as a whole against smaller countries?

The ‘a-ha’ I had this week that helps me better understand the lopsided comparison:

“the borders between US states wouldn’t close.”

Probably not anyway.

==

Finland vs Wyoming

==

“Even though some of the lands west of the line were to remain part of Germany, Belgium claimed sovereignty over the trackbed and the stations.”

==

Turns out, like Australia, New Zealand is its own continent.

The continent of Zealandia.

I suppose, just cuz we can’t see land, doesn’t mean it’s not there, waiting for us to put it to use.

==

Compared to Atlantropa‘s vision of literally bringing Europe and Africa closer together by draining the Mediterranean Sea thus creating new habitable land, this idea to run a 55-mile dam across the Bering Strait project seems almost minor in environmental impact and quaint in the implied US-Russia relations.

==

“Austenasia’s emperor, Jonathan Austen, 25, has had to follow the shelter-in-place guidelines imposed by Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the other side of his front door.”

==

“To call the ending an anticlimax would be an insult not only to climaxes but to prefixes. It’s so witless, in fact, that when we do discover the secret, we want to rewind the film so we don’t know the secret anymore.”

==

Oh, apropos of nothing, the family designed and presented me with a flag for Father’s Day.