(no subject)
I don't know if it's a sadder fact that I just screamed at my television screen because of an inaccurate question on Jeopardy! or that they got it so horribly wrong. The answer was something along the lines of "This river flows through Washington, DC," and as the geek that I am I immediately stated the correct answer which is the Anacostia. To my surprise, however, the contestant gave the question "What is the Potomac?" which they said was correct even though the Potomac River flows between DC and Virginia and never actually passes between two parts of the city itself (unless you count National Airport, which is technically part of the city but nobody really looks at it that way). The Anacostia River, on the other hand, flows right through the city with most of Washington to the west but also a considerable part to the east. It would be like saying that the Delaware runs through Philadelphia instead of the Schuylkill, completely false. Perhaps I shouldn't get so worked up about such things, but if you're going to put something on Jeopardy! then you should certainly make sure that it's accurate. While the Potomac is the river most associated with DC, and even most of the better off people who live in the city have probably never seen the Anacostia much less crossed it, to say that it runs through the city is at best misleading.