Maphead

[Reentrant]

One aspect that I would have added had I written this, though, would be the one discipline that keeps paper maps at its very heart: the sport of orienteering.

What?! You mean the book doesn't delve into orienteering? I agree with this poster's description of the passion that orienteers have for maps and mapping. The agonizing that goes into the base map! The fieldwork! The drafting! And the printing of it all -- choices of paper! Ink! Method! These guys are nuts!

And instead -- as opposed to in addition to -- the book focuses on geocaching? Since when did geocaching even involve a map? Navigation, certainly. But using GPS to navigate in terrain is like... using Wikipedia to do your homework. Where's the challenge? I suppose in finding the trinket, once you followed to blinking arrow to get there.

Orienteering is a nerdy, difficult-to-sell niche sport, I grant you, and the dopey Boy Scout version of it, with "shooting azimuths" and forced marches, probably kills the enjoyment for many. Still. I am so disappointed that my heart aches. Imagine how many people could have been exposed to orienteering. I can't bear to read this book. Sorry, Ken.

Map girl

[Ken Jennings]

I am so disappointed that my heart aches.

Redefining "first world problems"!

[Reddpen]

Just finished reading the Kindle version and the illustrations seem to come through fine (other than the mistake in the first illustration being discussed elsewhere).

Now I'm curious what mistake I'm missing in the first illustration (the Wisconsin/Tanzania etc. comparisons), and where else it's being discussed.

I'm also wondering why the map shown on p.53 of Maphead, allegedly produced in 1979, labels what was then the USSR as Commonwealth of Independent States, which first came into being in 1991. But from what I can tell, that's the case on McArthur's original version too. Any insight? Is it all some corrective Communist plot?

[Ken Jennings]

The goof in the original Kindle illustration was fixed within days. (I think the Wisconsin and Tanzania maps both had the same label during the first week of release.)

Yeah, I noticed that as well about the McArthur map that the publishers sent over. I take it this is the latest version of the McArthur map? ODT must not have a good graphic of the first one, since they're using the early-90s one on their site as well.

That does make the "first-ever upside-down map" caption a little confusing, but I guess it's technically true: this is the first-ever upside-down map, just a later printing of it.

[econgator]

The goof in the original Kindle illustration was fixed within days. (I think the Wisconsin and Tanzania maps both had the same label during the first week of release.).

Actually, it was that it was just two sets of Lanai/South Carolina and CA/BC pictures. The Tanzania/WI and -- I'm guessing -- Lake Michigan/Sweden pics weren't there. I never bothered to update mine, so I still have the wrong version.

[Reddpen]

Assuming this is the forum for posting things we think may be goofs that might warrant fixing for the paperback edition...

On p.79, the first page of Ch.5, Elevation, the first sentence reads:

Lowther Lodge, a bountifully gabled and chimneyed Queen Anne town house... has been the home for the last century to Britain's Royal Geographical Society.

Near the end of the same page, in the second paragraph, this sentence appears:

The squeaky blond floorboards of the Victorian building are lined with card tables and makeshift booths...

I claim zero knowledge of British architectural styles, and only a bit more of British royalty timelines, but it seems unlikely the house is both a Queen Anne and a Victorian. Is it possible your inner architecture aficionado is... Baroque?

[Ken Jennings]

Is your Wikipedia "Baroque"? The "Queen Anne Style" was indeed a Victorian revival.

[roofinbri]

My copy of Maphead ends on page 246 and becomes the Terry Goodkind book Naked Empire starting at his page 257 so I have parts of two books but all of neither! Sign me, Dosen't know what he is missing!

[Reddpen]

Is your Wikipedia "Baroque"? The "Queen Anne Style" was indeed a Victorian revival.

So it was, at least the second time around, per Wikipedia.

The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne (1702–14), or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century.

I learned something, and though it may be counterintuitive, it wasn't all that painful. Maybe next time I'll do a bit of research first.

[Reddpen]

If there's a thread with a more extensive collection of potential fixes for the paperback edition of Maphead, I can't find it. So here goes...

--On p. 166, you quote Mark Bozanich speaking of "the old Milwaukee Railroad logo" (itals mine). If that's what he said, so be it... but I'd guess this is the logo he spotted:

Milwaukee Road was popular shorthand for the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad.

--On p. 173 you say "...we say good-bye as he drops me and John off..." Shouldn't that be "drops John and me off"?

--On p. 174, in the pull-quote from Bill Bryson's Notes from a Small Island, he mentions "Pike's Peak." I've tried to find my copy with no luck, and again, if it's in the original, never mind, but there's no apostrophe in the official name of the mountain.

--Perhaps more importantly, the Bryson title is Notes from a Small Island, not Notes on....

Not a fix, just a note related to the stoplight on I-70 in Breezewood, PA: You may not have lived here then, but there used to be a stoplight or two on I-90 in North Bend, WA, before the freeway was rerouted in 1978.

Love the description of your family's attempt at the Massacre, especially Mindy's one-liners. Best of luck if you try it this year.

[Ken Jennings]

The Bozanich and Bryson quotes are correct as is, but thanks for spotting the error in the name of the Bryson book. I think we can still fix.

"Between me and you" vs "between you and me"...meh, Strunk and White care, but I never have.

[braggtastic]

I heard back from the friend of my family for whom I purchased a copy of Maphead. He's wintering in Florida, and is loving the book. As a long-time map enthusiast/boy scout now in his mid 70s, he has an enormous collection of paper maps. He is looking to give them to a good home. If anyone is interested, especially if you live on Long Island (where the majority of his collection resides), please let me know.

[BurienKen]

I just finished the Maphead book-on-CD, and feel compelled to ask… Do you have any control over who narrates your books? I have a two reasons for asking:

1. I was greatly annoyed when on disc 1, narrator Kirby Heyborne chose to modulate his voice several times. If I remember correctly, the book mentioned whispering or a hushed tone, and Kirby chose to read that passage in a whisper! I turned up the volume and replayed that passage 2 or 3 times, but had trouble making out the words. This excessive voice modulation happened a few more times early in the book. The last several discs were all understandable though.

2. I am convinced that you would have done a better job. Yes, Kirby successfully pronounced Puyallup and Sequim (with help I'm sure). But I found his pronunciations to be, shall we say, nonstandard. (This of course means, "not what I am used to".) My research shows that there are multiple acceptable pronunciations of acumen and Thames (to name just two examples), so I guess I have no basis for complaint. I just think you could have done it better. Did you consider reading your own work for the CD version? Did you have a choice?

[Ken Jennings]

Some other people have told me that too. I REALLY wanted to read the book and the scheduling didn't work, the audiobook company said it had to be someone in-house or nothing. Alas.

[grodney]

Paperback is on the shelves at B&N in Charlotte NC -- two days before the computer said it would be available.

[Hannah]

Ken, I enjoyed Maphead and thought you might like this twist to travel and adventure; it reminded me of the crazy places members of the Century Club visit and the idea that geocaching can simply be a way to see unusual/beautiful places that one would never think to visit, never get around to visiting, or never realize were in one's own backyard. http://vimeo.com/27145734

[Richardatlarge]

Hi,

First posting!

I thought folks keen on maps might be interested in browsing these maps, made by Jim McKown for the game Counterpoise.

Visit here: http://iconspire.org/one.htm

I've always told Jim (a friend for 30 years), this his maps are ART and should be shown, but he won't budge. He loves his maps, though.

These are just digital images, of course, but you get the idea (original maps are poster size and are ink and color pencil) ...

Thanks!

Richard

[grodney]

From Chapter 3: "...one in ten American college students can't find California or Texas on a map, ten times worse than the same numbers in Dr. Williams's 1950 study.".

For whatever reason, "one in ten" and "ten times worse" confuse me. Does that mean it was 1 in 100 in the 1950 study?

[Ken Jennings]

From Chapter 3: "...one in ten American college students can't find California or Texas on a map, ten times worse than the same numbers in Dr. Williams's 1950 study.".

For whatever reason, "one in ten" and "ten times worse" confuse me. Does that mean it was 1 in 100 in the 1950 study?

Yeah, it's unfortunate that both are ten-based. I think you are correct: it was 1% in 1950 and 10% decades later.

[Ponch]

From Chapter 3: "...one in ten American college students can't find California or Texas on a map, ten times worse than the same numbers in Dr. Williams's 1950 study.".

For whatever reason, "one in ten" and "ten times worse" confuse me. Does that mean it was 1 in 100 in the 1950 study?

Yeah, it's unfortunate that both are ten-based. I think you are correct: it was 1% in 1950 and 10% decades later.

I think that it's just a case of bad statistics...

The phrase "ten times worse," in this context, leads me to believe that more students were able to find California or Texas on a map in the past than those today...

So if only 10% of students today could find them, ten times better than that in 1950 would mean perhaps 100% of students were able to find them then?

Very fuzzy math used here....

[ArtVark]

[
Very fuzzy math used here....

It ain't the math that's fuzzy. It's the wording. 1% could not find the states in 1950, 10% cannot today. Express that in any way that makes you happy.

[Ken Jennings]

I'm not going to defend the wording here to the death, but I'm having a hard time seeing the objection. On a test designed to measure geographic knowledge, how would more correct answers be a "ten time worse" result?

[Ponch]

I'm not going to defend the wording here to the death, but I'm having a hard time seeing the objection. On a test designed to measure geographic knowledge, how would more correct answers be a "ten time worse" result?

That's what I was saying!

The article made it seem like fewer students could find the states today than in the past, but I have no idea how one would measure a percentage as ten times worse (when the current result is 10%)

[Ken Jennings]

Oh, you're right. I was reading the excerpt above backward. Hmm, maybe that stat is wrong.

[grodney]

Hey Ken and all, you may have seen this elsewhere, but the usgs is having a "Spring Sale", with tons maps priced at $1:
http://store.usgs.gov/b2c_usgs/usgs/zIn ... 0000000336)/.do

I have no commercial stake in this, and I'm mostly not a bot. Just passing along some info.