Atlas of Strange Maps

I love maps. You may have noticed that I always seem to find a way to include a Google Maps page showing the recent locations of my adventures. This has pretty much been a love of mine since I was a kid and enjoyed opening up the National Geographic maps and exploring all the geography of each new issue.

Last night, I ran across this wonderful site that sings to my original calling -- that love of maps, named "Strange Maps" This Blog keeps track of strange maps that the author has found. I love old maps. As you may know, my original training at George Mason was as a Geography major, focusing on cartography. Since there is no money in map making, and many better career opportunities with "teh Internets", my career ended up at VeriSign, and not drawing maps. One of these days, I'm going to have to get my mom to get me a tour of the dusty old map room at the Library of Congress.

My favorite of the maps was a book cover showing the "Röstigraben", the "isogloss" border in Switzerland, where French is spoken to the west, German to the east. I traverse this border daily, and clearly notice the difference; most notably in the names of the street signs. Rösti is also one of the few Swiss foods that the children, especially Jake and Cecilia, really love. Stacy makes this dish at least twice a week.