272 - Missouri, the Shred-Me State

Abraham Simpson never explained what his problem with the Show-Me State was, but Homer’s cranky old dad did offer this reason for owning a 49-star American flag: “I’ll be dead in cold, cold ground before I recognize the state of Missourah!”

Is Abe’s vehement anti-Missourianism grounded in some true but obscure historical fact? I doubt whether Missouri’s very existence ever was the subject of such heated controversy – the only thing that comes close is the brief, bloodless Honey War, a border conflict with Iowa in 1838-’39.

Most probably, the quote serves to underline Abe Simpson’s senectitude, characterized by the obstinacy with which he launches into irrelevant old-geezer anecdotes. (“Not many people know I owned the first radio in Springfield. Weren’t much on the air then, just Edison reciting the alphabet over and over. ‘A!’ he’d say, then ‘B’. ‘C’ would usually follow.”)

As states go, Missouri is one of the more middle-of-the-road ones – or varied ones, if you prefer: it’s in the midwest, but has strong cultural ties to the south. St Louis is often called the ‘westernmost eastern city in the US’, Kansas City the ‘easternmost western city’. Missouri is a microcosm of the nation’s economy, demography and politics to the extent that it is considered a bellwether state – consistently voting for the winner in all US presidential races since 1904 (except 1956, when Missourians preferred Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson over the eventual Republican winner Dwight Eisenhower).

Missouri is known as the Show-Me State, indicating its inhabitants’ reputation for skepticism for any but the most rational arguments. Its origin is ascribed to an 1899 speech by Missouri Congressman Willard Vandiver, declaring that “I come from a country that raises corn and cotton, cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I’m from Missouri, and you have got to show me.”

This map portrays Missouri as the Shred-Me State. It’s one of a series of maps of states, drawn as something else, by Frank Chimero, an illustrator and graphic designer, who says that “the illustrations for the states don’t necessarily have to deal the thematics of the state’s culture, it’s just a nice exercise for my creative muscles.”

Mr Chimero’s map captures well the only two areas on Missouri’s western and southern border that protrude from the other wise straight state lines. The torn edge of the paper sticking out at the top left represents the Platte Purchase, an area of 3,149 square miles (8,156 square km) forming the state’s northwest corner, acquired in 1836 and the only Missouri territory beyond the meridian at 94°36’’ longitude west.

At the bottom of the shredded page, the paper forms a straight line equivalent to the 36°30’ parallel north, also known as the Missouri Compromise Line, established in 1820 as the northernmost border of slavery in western territories. The same parallel forms most of the boundary between Virginia and Carolina, between Tennessee and Kentucky, and constitutes the northernmost border of Texas with Oklahoma. The only exception is the bit at the far right. This is Missouri’s Bootheel region, annexed at the instigation of planter J.H. Walker, who argued for the region’s inclusion in Missouri, sharing more affinity with Missouri’s Mississippi River towns than with Arkansas Territory. The Bootheel’s southern border is at 36° north.

 

271 - “Hilariously Wrong”: Swiss Airlines Map of America

 

The notable absence of Swiss people from the long list of explorers and discoverers might not just be due to the Alpine country’s lack of access to the sea. It also might just be that map-blindness is a national characteristic. It certainly appears so from this map of Swiss Airlines’s North American routes. “It’s hilariously wrong,” says Evan Sparks, who sent it in.

“In Florida, every city has magically migrated North. Tennessee also moved north, but Memphis replaced Chattanooga and Little Rock replaced Clarksville. The capital of Massachusetts is apparently Boston, Maine. Detroit is underneath Lake Huron, as is Pittsburgh with Lake Erie. Orange County has moved to Palm Springs. Portland and Sacramento have relocated inland, to the Harney Basin and the Great Basin, respectively.”

 

 

 

270 - Movie Maps of the World

 

You’d think that in the world of global cinema, the US is the dominant force. You’d be wrong. Think New Zealand, India and Iceland. Of course these cartograms (i.e. maps distorted to demonstrate some kind of information) fall into the third category of untruths enumerated by “lies, damned lies and statistics”. Having these these cartograms demonstrate other aspects of the film industry would undoubtedly result in radically different maps. 

These particular cartograms distort the sizes of the world’s countries in relation to the average budget per feature film, the number of films produced per capita and the total number of films produced per country.

On the first map, showing average budget per feature film, the surprising giant is New Zealand – for once looming large over its neighbour to the west, in fact, Australia could fit in between the North and South Islands. I can’t think of any other explanation for New Zealand’s size than the very expensive Lord of the Rings trilogy, shot on location in that country between October 1999 and December 2000.

Even if we revert to things as usual and ignore New Zealand, America’s size is less than impressive. You would think that all those blockbuster movies would have a greater effect on the average American feature film budget. But maybe the ‘big’ movies obscure the fact that the US produces many more ‘small’, low- or no-budget movies.

On the second map, showing number of films produced per capita, another thinly populated island nation is unexpectedly dominant – Iceland. Admittedly, it doesn’t take many movies in this country of barely 300,000 to get a good films per capita ratio. The other Nordic countries are also doing pretty well on this map, especially Denmark, outsizing all other European countries (except Iceland, of course). Slovenia is also doing noticeably well.

Regional dominance in Asia is achieved by Hong Kong, its unfamiliar shape for once outsizing the other Asian countries – even India, which is struggling to keep up with Israel.

The US manages its biggest relative size on the third map, showing the total number of feature films produced, dominating the American continent (much less so in the previous two maps), but with strong competition in Europe (notably France), Africa (a huge Nigeria) and of course Asia (a giant India shows the clout of its ‘Bollywood’, churning out more movies annually than the US).

This is also the only map that shows up a Japan larger than life. Australia and New Zealand have dwindled back into obscurity. Bizarrely, Portugal is almost invisible, whereas in the previous map it broke out of its Iberian partner Spain’s stranglehold.

Notably absent (or very atrophied) on all three maps are Latin America (Cuba punches above its weight on the second map, but that’s about it), Africa (Nigeria being the most striking exception), Russia, the Middle East and much of Asia.

 

These cartograms, an advert for Volkswagen showcasing the car manufacturer’s support for independent cinema, appeared on the back cover of this week’s film magazine from The Observer, the British newspaper. Thanks to Jon Morris for scanning them and sending them in.

269 - What A Great War: Art From the Trenches

The First World War ( 1914-1918 ) obviously didn’t get that name while it was still raging, on account of the Second one still being a few decades in the future. Some called it ‘the War to End All Wars’ (which didn’t quite turn out that way), others labelled it ‘the Great War’, although that qualifier was a bit misleading - more a comment on its size than on its enjoyability.

Not that there wasn’t any fun to be had in the trenches, in between bouts of severe carnage. This helmet is a nice example of trench art, showing a map of the Western Front. The brim of the helmet is marked ‘H.G. Booth, 110th TMB AEF France 1918-’19’. Henry G. Booth was a cook for the 110th Trench Mortar Battery. AEF stands for ‘American Expeditionary Force’.

The helmet map shows

 

• England (with London, Winchester, Dover, Southampton, Hull and Liverpool indicated)
• Holland (‘Amstradam’ marked)
• Belgium (one city highlighted, name not legible)
• Luxemburg (a bit too large)
• the Alsace (shown separate from Germany and France; the city of Metz indicated)
• the north of France (with Calais, Lille, Le Havre, St Malo, Brest, Paris and three other cities shown) and
• part of Germany (Cologne, Coblenz, Mayence – i.e. Mainz).

 

This map taken here from the website Trench Art. Thanks to blogfok for sending me the link.