Awesome trivial question: How many official state languages are there in the Western Hemisphere? Give yourself a moment to think about this before you read my first guess on the inside. [more inside]
posted by math on Jul 28, 2009 - 36 answers

What are the closest distinct languages? I found myself involved in a discussion about this the other day, when we were trying to figure out if the Spanish-Portugese separation was greater than the English-Dutch separation. Then, someone else brought up the Swedish-Norwegian pair, and we all ended up rather confused. [more inside]
posted by math on Aug 11, 2008 - 53 answers

How far can you travel in a particular state (geographical, not emotional) without leaving it? I was thinking about this the other day when travelling from Asheville to Kitty Hawk, NC, and I realized that it was an amazingly long journey to take all within a relatively small (but long) Eastern state. [more inside]
posted by math on Jun 3, 2008 - 21 answers