Algeria and geographical quirks

"Algeria" disappointed me. It's the first Large Geographical Region entry that is extremely short, doesn't discuss the history of the country very well, and was obviously (and explicitly) written by someone whose interest in the place is more academic than personal. (An editor's note states the "Algeria" entry was written by a professor emeritus of history at the University of South Carolina.)

Compared to "Alabama," which was clearly written by someone in love with Alabama, "Alaska," which was clearly written by someone who thinks Alaska is fascinating, and "Albania," which same, "Algeria" was...boring. Even though I'm pretty certain Algeria itself is not boring. Come on, World Book! Find someone who's in love with Algeria! Algeria has 45+ million people, according to you! It shouldn't be hard!

Quasi-related: The way local people anywhere refer to where they live fascinates me. For instance, this morning I was tasked with researching a report on transportation issues in "North Texas."

I grew up in "southwest Michigan." Anyone looking at a map would tell you that "southwest Michigan" surely includes places like Stevensville, Benton Harbor, St. Joseph, South Haven, and all of Berrien County. Right? After all, you can't get more "south" and "west" than those places and still be in Michigan.

Anyone from those places or from "southwest Michigan," however, will tell you that those places are not "southwest Michigan." They are "the lakeshore" or "southern lower Michigan." "Southwest Michigan" is actually north and east of those places, and encompasses Kent, Ottawa, Allegan, Barry, Kalamazoo, and roughly half of Calhoun counties. (The other half of Calhoun County is in "mid-Michigan." )

Consequently, when my editor said "make sure these cities/counties are actually in North Texas," I knew she didn't mean "make sure these are the northermost parts of Texas." I was willing to bet cash that the northernmost parts of Texas, latitudinally, aren't in the part people call "North Texas."

I was right.

"North Texas," per Wikipedia, is what I think of as the "shoulder" of Texas - Dallas/Fort Worth and a bunch of surrounding counties. But they're not actually as far north as one can go and still be in Texas!

I love humans. We're so weird about naming the places we call home.