Ted Rall for September 05, 2009

sigh I hate to point it out to you, Ted, but dude, you left out that sardine-tin shaped country on Iberia called Portugal on your map. That dot looks like Lisbon to me.

Stop picking those nits. He’s a cartoonist, not a cartographer.

If we are indulging in the picking of nits—it was the final conquest of Grenada (the most important event of 1492 :-) ) that freed up resources to finally bother with the New World (which was of course known about in Europe for about 500 years before Mr CC)

Ted: Indeed, you’re not a cartographer but in the same map you’re pointing the route to India across the Atlantic wanting us to all possibly snigger at Columbus for being a celebrated explorer who didn’t know where he was and getting the route wrong becaus eof his tiny earth theory. I’m pretty sure he knew his starting point since he spent a fair amount of time in Portugal.

The modern joke is probably that the Spanish barely register the existence of Portugal today.

Actually, Columbus did think there was only one ocean and no Western Hemisphere continents between Spain and India.

That’s why Native Americans have historically been called “Indians.” Because Columbus thought he had reached India and of course started referring to the people there as Indians.

Seems most of Europe didn’t believe the Vikings about the New World because they weren’t considered trustworthy. Not that they hadn’t given the rest of Europe good reason not to trust them, what with all the pillaging and plundering.

Hmm, I think Ted was perhaps trying to underline the fact that Columbus had to find financial backing for his little jaunt and hopped from throne to throne begging for some cash. My nitpicking probably has more to do with the fact I’m an agrieved Portuguese. ;-)

I suspect this is also a reference to what Ted has to do now that he is unemployed, am I right? Also, Robert, the Vikings did no more pillaging and plundering than most people of the time; and in fact they colonized regions and then farmed there (like Ireland, York, Russia). The bad reputation is largely derived from the Irish monks who got hit repeatedly (too conveniently located) and could write about it. Beware the power of the media…

Actually, the portugueses turned Colombus down because they had been taking that same ocean route for years. It led to their secret fishing waters off of Newfoundland( or was it Nova Scotia?) , which they called Bacalaos, meaning the “cod fish place”. They sure didn’t want Columbus to discover those waters, while secretly snickering at his ignorance of geography.

Is there intentional irony in the fact that a cartoon about how networked communications undermines traditional economics is accessible on a Web site, one with an ad for your blog and Twitter posts, or is that just an added bonus?

English teacher, I was writing the French version of the plural word. However my keyboard doesn’t have an ” Accent Grave” key.

^Why then bring in the French spelling at all? Perhaps my lack of French is showing but the plural form of Portuguese in French isn’t portuguèses, I think it’s portugais. It is in Portuguese though! Um português, dois portugueses. By the way, it’s the land of Bacalhaus. But this conversation has spun off enough. Back to the cartoon, please. It’s about a confused Genovan and the Spanish court.

Isn’t picky-nitting fun!? BTW it wasn’t just the Portugooses (sorry about that–resistance was useless) who were stockfishing off those North American Banks (and presumably drying their fish on any convenient land nearby), English merchants from Bristol had been doing it for 50 or more years (and CC may have sailed with some of them). There’s even a theory (well hypothesis) that America was named for one of them, an Anglo-Welshman called Richard and surnamed in Welsh ‘ap Meuric’ or in English ‘Amerike’. For a definitive discussion of all aspects of this see http://howlandbolton.com/essays/read_more.php?sid=396

«The modern joke is probably that the Spanish barely register the existence of Portugal today.» Ah, omQ R, but Portugal’s greatest living writer lives in exile in Spain….

Henri

Then the New World should be called Cabotto Land after John Cabot (Giovanni Cabotto)

M Henri: José Saramago exiled himself after a tiff with his Catholic compatriots about his novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. I agree with him. ;-) It also doesn’t help that he has p!ssed off many Portuguese by stating there should be a Federated Iberia which includes Spain & Portugal. Once, while shooting the breeze in a tasca, I made the same mistake, voicing aloud that perhaps things would have been a little better if they hadn’t split off 900 odd years ago. Barely escaped with my life, even abandoning my drink!

omQ R, I guess we can conclude that they aren’t yet ready for a federation. Just like Canadians would be angry and suspicious if someone suggests that they merge with the USA–even though they really should :0)

drCanuck, I was only kidding. I need there to be a free, totally independent Canada, so that I can flee there in case of a new draft!