Maphead_ Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks - Ken Jennings [126]
157 A documentary: Starbucking, directed by Bill Tangeman, Heretic Films, 2005.
159 He’s been mugged: These calamities are drawn from a list Veley compiled of his worst travel experiences. John Flinn, “I’ve Been Everywhere, Man,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 25, 2005.
161 the island of Ferdinandea: Richard Owen, “Italy Stakes Early Claim to Submerged Island,” The Times, Nov. 27, 2002.
162 a man comfortable with the amenities: A phrase I’ve stolen from the great Scottish cartoonist Eddie Campbell.
164 “It was like finishing”: Rolf Potts, “Mister Universe,” The New York Times, Nov. 16, 2008.
165 “I want to be”: Roger Rowlett, “An Interview with Club Founder Jack Longacre,” Apex to Zenith (newsletter) 57 (2nd quarter 2002), p. 10.
CHAPTER 9: TRANSIT
166 “There are map people”: John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America (London: Penguin 1962/1997), p. 55.
168 a cross-country convoy: Numerical data about this grueling expedition was drawn from William Greany, “Principal Facts Concerning the First Transcontinental Army Motor Transport Expedition, Washington to San Francisco, July 7 to September 6, 1919,” Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum, www.eisenhower.archives.gov/research/digital_documents/1919Convoy/New%20PDFs/Principal%20facts.pdf.
169 the size of the state of Delaware: U.S. Bureau of Public Roads, 1961, www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/50size.cfm.
170 the traffic light in Syracuse’s: “Irish in Syracuse Keep Green on Top, Even on Stop Light,” The New York Times, Apr. 7, 1976.
170 the nation’s highest-numbered road: This is a much-contested distinction, confused by the fact that some areas (like my former home state of Utah) add two zeroes to their numbered streets, calling a road something like “800 South” when it’s effectively 8th South. 1010th Street in rural Wisconsin is the highest number so far discovered by the obsessives on the misc.transport.road newsgroup.
170 US-321 through Elizabethton: According to the misc.transport.road FAQ, this is the only U.S. highway that switches from north–south to south–north signposting, though nearly thirty others switch from north–south to east–west at some point.
170 The numbering was out of order: Shuster insisted that the name I-99 would be more “catchy.” Sean D. Hamill, “Road Stirs Up Debate, Even on Its Name,” The New York Times, Dec. 27, 2008.
171 “Guerrilla Public Service”: Craig Stephens, “Richard Ankrom’s Freeway Art,” L.A. Weekly, Dec. 30, 2009.
173 fabled wonders of roadgeek America: Both superlatives drawn, again, from the FAQ periodically posted to misc.transport.road.
174 the Daleks from Doctor Who: “Daleks Get Stamp of Approval,” BBC News, Feb. 5, 1999.
174 millions every year: “From One Revolution to Another,” Ordnance Survey, www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/about-us/our-history/index.html.
174 “Coming from a country”: Notes from a Small Island (New York: William Morrow, 1995), p. 94.
175 Weimar-era maps: Arthur Jay Klinghoffer, The Power of Projections: How Maps Reflect Global Politics and History (Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2006), p. 90.
175 as he and his new bride: Douglas A. Yorke and John Margolies, Hitting the Road: The Art of the American Road Map (San Francisco: Chronicle, 1996), p. 17.
176 a jaw-droppingly bold: Ibid., p. 40.
176 Eight billion: Ibid., p. 6.
184 “There is a game”: “The Purloined Letter,” Edgar Allan Poe: Poetry and Tales (New York: Library of America, 1984), p. 694.
CHAPTER 10: OVEREDGE
187 Neal Lane announced: “On the President’s Announcement on the Global Positioning System,” White House Office of Science and Technology Policy press release, May 1, 2000.
188 “Now that SA”: “The Great American GPS Stash Hunt!,” sci.geo.satellite-nav Usenet newsgroup, May 3, 2000. The lightning-quick spread of geocaching in its first few weeks can be read firsthand in the archives of this now mostly defunct newsgroup.
191 “the biggest hobby in the world”: Nicole Tsong, “Geocachers