Did you know that the COLD WAR is over?

I'm feeling disenchanted.

Last night for trivia we were given the question:
"What country forms the entire northern border of Hungary?"

I know you all know your eastern European maps fairly well. I know you know the difference between Belarus, Ukraine, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Croatia. I know you know where Hungary is and I know you know Austria. Heck, you probably know all the capitals too.

The answer though, and the only one that would be excepted: Czechoslovakia.

Now what's wrong with this?

That's right. The Cold War is over. The capitalists prevailed (except in North Korea, Vietnam, China, Laos, and Cuba). The U.S.S.R. became Russia and the C.I.S. and there is no Czechoslovakia..

But that is the answer. And some people got it right. Yup. Some people got it right. I know I grade my tests based on the democratic process all the time.

So I'm disillusioned and at a loss for where I would prefer to be on Tuesday nights.

Why am I willing to accept (and expect) that my students don't know the difference between counterfeiting and bootlegging (try explaining that one) and that they won't know that the needles on a watch are called a hand but I'm unwilling to accept that Czechoslovakia. is still a country? Oh yeah, because you LIVED through the breakup of the eastern bloc AND you are a professional trivia guy.