I contacted a professor of geography at Michigan State who e-mailed me that there is no way to absolutely determine which has more square miles, China or the U.S., since it depends on the technical definition of what amount territorial water can be counted.  What can be answered authoritatively is that China has a minutely larger land mass (3.69 million square miles to 3.68 million square miles).  You can see this most clearly on the web page http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/china/geog/M_USCH1.htm which is affiliated with Columbia University (my alma mater).  Her a map is displayed with the China land mass superimposed over the land mass of the U.S.

There are reputable resources making a claim for each country actually being larger when land plus water territority is included.

Another tricky geography question is “What are the Northenmost, Southernmost, Westernmost, and Easternmost states in the U.S.?

Hint:  The trick part is the Easternmost

For the answer, e-mail me, doug@spiritedevents.com

I am the host of the radio program, “The Woodstock Roundtable,” heard Sunday mornings over WDST-FM, Woodstock, NY and over the web (and On Demand) at www.wdst.com

While I have been asking trivia questions on-air to generate conversations for over 25 years, I have started this blog to celebrate the publication of my book, “50 of the Greatest Trivia Questions Ever Asked.”

While I love competition, for me the most rewarding part of trivia are the animated, fun, argumentative, intriguing conversations that are generated. The intention of this blog is to generate these kinds of conversations.

The question I started this blog with, “What are the 3 tallest breeds of dog?” is also the one I asked on the last radio show and is one of the bonus questions from my book. While I particularly enjoyed some of the more estoteric listener contributions such as Borzoi and Turkish Shepherd Dog, the correct answers from my research are: 

Irish Wolfhound                                                                                                                      Great Dane                                                                                                                                 St. Bernard

(As with all trivia questions and facts I put on this blog, I welcome different opinions, contrary research, and creative arugments).

I know of the size and strength of the St. Bernard from personal experience.  When I was around 14, my father surprised us with a tw0 year-old female named Brandy.  What fun to ride Brandy like a horse and roll around in the grass with her.  Her tongue was so huge that she literally drenched us with her kisses. And of course we couldn’t resist playing dead so she would go into her savior mode.

But then we were introduced to the other side of her loving, protective nature.  One day I was playing with Brandy in the front yard when a large male German Shepherd (very intimidating) who lived down the block, came walking by.  Brandy took an immediate dislike  to the dog and went bolting after her.  As tough as we knew that German Shepherd to be, when he saw this huge St. Bernard coming after him, he took off like a shot back to his home.  I went running after Brandy and witnessed the following:  The owner of the large German Shepherd, seeing the chase, opened the screen door to his porch and as soon as his dog was inside, shut the door.  Brandy never broke stride.  As the German Shepherd’s owner watched in horror, Brandy ran right through the screen door, sending it flying.  Just in time the German Shepherd’s owner got his dog into the more secure part of the house.

It wasn’t long before the police were at our door and my father ended up taking Brandy to a farm where a woman raised St. Bernards.   

As for my newly published book, ‘50 of the Greatest Trivia Questions Ever Asked, it will be on Amazon soon.  If you are interested in learning a bit more about it, you can click on the image of the book which appears on the home page and other pages of this web site.

I very much look forward to any great trivia questions you might contribute.  And to the ongoing conversations it generates.