No Sucha Thing

I may not remember much about geometry, but common sense tells me that you can't draw a straight line on a concave or convex surface.  Since the surfaces themselves are curved, any line you draw on them will also be curved.  The shortest distance between the North Pole and the South Pole is a straight line through the center of the Earth.  The shortest distance between the North Pole and the South Pole on the surface of the Earth is any one of the longitudinal lines, which are curved because the surface of the Earth is curved.  Well, not on the surface of the real Earth because there are mountains and stuff in the way, but on the surface of the globe that is commonly used as a model of the Earth.  If you are using a flat map, which I believe is called a Mercator projection, you can draw a straight line between any two points on the map but, if you chart a course from that map, your actual course on the real Earth will be a curved line.  Interestingly, if you plot a compass heading on your flat map it will be identical to the same compass heading on the real Earth.  How weird is that?

Speaking of weird things, are you telling me that some people voted for Obama in 2008 and then turned around and voted for Trump in 2016, and they voted for both of those guys for the same reason?  I seem to remember discussing some Bernie Sanders fans who switched sides like that, which is a little less weird because both Sanders and Trump were considered to be mavericks at the time.  Obama might have been considered maverick back in the 20th Century but he was pure establishment by the 21st.  I remember Uncle Ken saying once that many people voted for Trump because they wanted to "stick it to the Man".   Some of our younger readers might not know what that means, but us old timers know who "the Man" is.  Or do we?  The more I think about it, the Man that Uncle Ken wanted to stick it to back in his Hippie days is not the same Man who is in power today.  Could it be that there are some people out there who like sticking it to any Man, regardless of race, color. or creed?