or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 19, 2006
I'm Superior Because I Know Many Tiny Little Shards Of Information
I'm working on a magazine piece on the issues covered in this old post called "Schrodinger's War." And something I've learned is which country is the last against whom the U.S. formally declared war. I hope many people here will say they don't know this, so I can be filled with a senseless, utterly unwarranted sense of superiority towards them.
Posted at May 19, 2006 10:55 AM | TrackBackI'm gonna guess Japan.
Posted by: TwistTieCollector at May 19, 2006 11:26 AMZembla, wasn't it?
Posted by: Sully at May 19, 2006 11:26 AMI'm not really sure, but my guess is that it was in WWII, and not Japan, which after Pearl Harbor was a "slam dunk", but one of the other Axis powers (i.e. Germany or my top guess, Italy). Or maybe we declared war on all three at once, since they were at that time an "Axis of Evil".
Posted by: mistah charley at May 19, 2006 11:57 AMHee hee. My guess was geographically close, but not actually correct. :-)
Posted by: Saheli at May 19, 2006 12:08 PMThat's easy! The U.S. most recently declared war against terra - you know, the earth.
planet-formerly-known-as-Earth, now just known as rubble...
Posted by: sam at May 19, 2006 12:26 PMSo are you gonna tell the answer or what?
Posted by: BRG at May 19, 2006 01:14 PMphillipines? mexico? the south?
Posted by: almostinfamous at May 19, 2006 01:23 PMI missed that day at Stutts. No, wait, we declared war on Stutts! Er, Stutts declared war on Terra!
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at May 19, 2006 02:02 PMBless Wikipedia!
I am truly intrigued to learn my own li'l shard: the vote in the Senate to declare war against Britain in 1812 was 19-13. Oh, to live in a democratic age!
I'll try not to step on this shard in the shower.
Posted by: Aaron Datesman at May 19, 2006 02:07 PMRomania.
Posted by: buermann at May 19, 2006 02:12 PMDrugs.
Posted by: at May 19, 2006 02:18 PMMy guess is that's it's some minor Axis country. We declared war Japan 12-7-41 and Germany and Italy 12-9-41 but we probably didn't get around to Slovakia or Finland for quite a while, if ever.
Posted by: Marcus at May 19, 2006 02:41 PMOf course Wikipedia has the answer and, no the US never delcared war on Finland or Slovakia, but we did hit up a few other Axis Minors.
Posted by: Marcus at May 19, 2006 02:48 PMFreedonia? Weren't they one of the Axis minor powers?
Posted by: Whistler Blue at May 19, 2006 02:56 PMGood old Wikipedia. Speaking of little shards of information, I never knew that FDR had gotten Congress to declare war on more countries than all the other Presidents combined.
Posted by: Whistler Blue at May 19, 2006 03:15 PMI was trying to count up and see if we had declared war on "a dozen countries in the last 50 years" like your Country A and Country B post said. I didn't see it.
Posted by: Noumenon at May 19, 2006 05:18 PMAmerica
Posted by: rob payne at May 19, 2006 06:53 PMThe way I remember it there was some kind of Commie nutmeg embargo and then --after someone dining at Chez Panisse complained that there was nothing to put on their hot chocalate-- the Senate finally acted.
I am guessing Grenada.
Plaque?
Posted by: Lame Man at May 19, 2006 08:27 PMDidn't Carter declare war on moral equivalency?
Posted by: Bob at May 19, 2006 09:06 PMWho the hell cares? There's many more countries to go and which need saving.
Posted by: Jesus B. Ochoa at May 21, 2006 07:24 AM
