Al Franken Drawing Map of US From Memory

by Scott Beale on September 9, 2009 · 12 comments

Senator Al Franken drawing a map of the US from memory during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio’s Midday at the Minnesota State Fair.

via Zoomdoggle

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filed under Art

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Max September 9, 2009 at 6:55 pm

Cool. He could make a living touring state fairs. His talents are wasted in politics.

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2 adam jackson September 9, 2009 at 7:18 pm

I’m pretty sure that there aren’t many politicians that could do that.

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3 Olivier Bonin September 9, 2009 at 7:41 pm

I’m pretty sure there’s no americans that could do that :)

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4 Max September 9, 2009 at 8:44 pm

Al Franken is an American. Politicians are very map aware due to their interest in the outlines of voting districts. See Gerrymandering for more details.

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5 Olivier Bonin September 10, 2009 at 11:43 pm

Thank you Max for the precision. It was sort of a joke… Al Franken is American and I say no Americans could do that…

It’s also a reference to how Americans are considered ignorant (sorry I know it’s a generalization,… but it rings so true as a generalization) about geography.

Why do I have to explain this?

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6 Lise September 9, 2009 at 7:46 pm

He didn’t just know where the states went, he even remembered where all the wiggly bits went!

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7 Cullen Murphy September 9, 2009 at 10:10 pm

Nerd.

He’s my senator so it’s OK for me to call him that. But pretty impressive none-the-less.

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8 Arthur Henke September 10, 2009 at 12:53 am

Looks like he’s got a lot of time on his hands.

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9 Todd September 10, 2009 at 8:22 am

Gotta disagree with ya Max, I bet none of our senators could do that…most policiticans are just a joke. Obviously he’s a bit smarter and can TELL jokes. I’d have voted for him.

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10 -dB September 10, 2009 at 9:15 pm

I’m impressed he started from the inside out. I would have drawn an outline of the 48 states first, then filled the state lines.

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11 Olivier Bonin September 10, 2009 at 11:44 pm

You mean you could do that? I want to see a video of it!!

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12 lens42 September 14, 2009 at 1:26 am

I had to do that in 5th grade AND fill in all the state capitols too, but now it’s over 40 years later and I’m sure I couldn’t get even close now. I wonder if he had to study up to do it, or if he just knew it?

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