Geography Reference
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ical reality,” wrote the Tehran Times . All National Geographic publications and journalists
werebannedfromIran.Resourceful Internet usersfromthePersianglobalcommunity sent
National Geographic thousands of e-mails, left hundreds of angry Amazon reviews of the
atlas, and even Google-bombed the phrase “Arabian Gulf,” so that the top Web result for
that phrase is now a mock error page reading, “The gulf you are looking for does not exist.
TryPersianGulf.”NationalGeographicfinallyissuedacorrection,but tensionsintheGulf
arestillrunninghigh overtheissue:Irancreatedanational“PersianGulfDay”everyApril
to celebrate the nomenclature, canceled the 2010 Islamic Solidarity Games when Arab na-
tions objected to the phrase “Persian Gulf” on the medals, and has even threatened to ban
any airline that doesn't use the “right” name on its display boards.
TheclosestAmericanequivalenttothiskindoftoponymicprideisthewayweuseplace-
names to confer insider or outsider status in our communities. Woe unto the Manhattan
touristwhoaskswhere“AvenueoftheAmericas”is(theofficialrenamingissuchamouth-
fulthatNewYorkersstillsay“SixthAvenue”)orpronounces“HoustonStreet”likethecity
inTexas.Inmyneckofthewoods,themagicnamesarePuyallup,theTacomasuburbthat's
home to Washington's largest state fair every fall, and Sequim, a retirement mecca on the
Olympic Peninsula. To pronounce these towns “poo-YAL-lup” and “SEE-kwim,” the way
they're spelled, is to instantly brand oneself a clueless tourist or, worse, a California trans-
plant. (I could tell you the real pronunciations, but then, under Washington State law, I'd
have to kill you.)
In Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past, the narrator remembers that the names
on maps were often more magical for him than the places themselves. “ Even on a stormy
day the name Florence or Venice would awaken the desire for sunshine, for lilies, for the
PalaceoftheDogesandforSantaMariadelFiore,”hesays.Thenamesfoolhimintothink-
ing that each place he visits will be “an unknown thing, different in essence from all the
rest,” and he's disappointed when he actually visits them. “They magnified the idea that I
had formed of certain places on the surface of the globe, making them more special, and in
consequence more real.” A friend of mine once fulfilled a lifelong ambition to visit Mon-
golia, and when he got home, I was excited to hear about the trip. “It's just a horrible ven-
ture,” he said, to my surprise. “The real thrill is in your head: the name of the capital city,
'UlanBator.'”Nothinghe'dactuallyseencouldliveuptothestrangepromiseofthosenine
letters. He shook his head and said it again slowly: “Ulan Bator . . .”
“Gettingpeopletoknowwhatwehavehereisacrucialchallenge,”saysHébert,pointing
out a 1950s Soviet moon globe (“The only one in this hemisphere!”) sitting atop a filing
cabinet next to Marie Tharp's 3-D map of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Inside the cabinet is
a fascinating collection of maps inscribed on powder horns, including one with a map of
Havana harbor dating back to the French and Indian War. “My challenge is not to get those
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