Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Miss South Carolina - Teen USA

Here is my latest blog entry. As a Canadian living in the USA, I was wonderstrucked by the sheer stupidity of Miss South Carolina during the Teen USA contest earlier in the week (yes, my wife had the show on TV....really). For those who are not familiar with this national crisis (I hear the screaming from Charleston right now!), Miss South Carolina was asked why most Americans cannot locate this country on a map. The answer that was uttered from her lips had me saying, "What?!?!?!?!". I think public libraries provide access to their collections, including maps. Check out this link to see the answer, complete with United Nations sponsored sub-titles.

Now, what does this have to do with Canada? I guess the answer that Miss South Carolina gave proved the point that the education system in the U.S. is on par with Sierra Leone. Maybe her role model was the current President, who needed a AAA trip-tik to find his way to the recent Mexico-Canada-U.S. summit outside Ottawa, Ontario --- yes, the nation's capital. As a product of the public school system, I was taught WORLD geography and knew the states that made up the USA (of course, the first state I knew was Florida because that's where family vacations took place), we knew that Washington, D.C. was the nation's capital, and that chicken wings were invented in Buffalo, New York! We were also taught European and Asian geography and knew that Australia was not only a country but a continent, too! What a revelation that would be to Miss South Carolina --- how can a country be a continent as well. I guess that would be too much data for her brain cells.

I think I know what Miss South Carolina was trying to say through her gibberish, but of course it came out all wrong, especially the point where she says that some Americans don't have access to maps. Huh? Honey, if you need a map, I have a whole bunch to donate from my previous year's trips assisting my mother on her annual snowbird trek to South Florida. I have the entire Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern states, including AAA Tour Books. So, if you are reading this blog posting, just let me know ... I will MapQuest you directions on where to pick them up.

3 comments:

Meg said...

Wow. She is the exhibit to her own answer--if you can call it an answer.

Love how she squeezed in the obligatory "for the children" at the very end.

Feeling old Librarian said...

Did she win?????

Andrew said...

In response to your question...NOPE. She came in 4th of 5 finalists.