Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Paula Poundstone is waiting to answer your questions about life’s little mysteries. E-mail her at paula@motherjones.com.

Bob Spark, West Sacramento, Calif.: Why, since Asia and Europe are obviously contiguous parts of the same landmass, are they referred to as separate continents?

A: I have a globe from 1972 standing in the front room of my house. I sleep with a globe that lights up beside my bed. I have an antique globe in my office. I watch “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” whenever I can, and I very much enjoyed crying throughout The English Patient. Yet I have never wondered why, since Asia and Europe are obviously contiguous parts of the same landmass, they are referred to as separate continents. I looked, though, and, by golly, you’re right.

This gave me a great excuse to call Rand McNally. A guy there pointed out that sometimes that landmass is called Eurasia. (I’d heard that term in the past, but I presumed the speaker was slurring his words and refused to get in the car with him.) Anyways, the Rand McNally guy turned me on to Professor David Woodward at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Woodward was smart, all right. He had a British accent, which always intimidates me because people with British accents sound so much smarter than me and may know Julie Andrews personally. He said that the Don River was the traditional boundary between Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages, but that the boundary has changed depending on historical circumstances. More importantly, he explained, medieval Christian history divided the world into three parts because Noah’s sons were each given a kingdom. His first son, Shem, took Asia; the middle son, Ham, took Africa; and his third son, Japheth, was given Europe. Apparently, Noah wasn’t interested in teaching sharing.

I got the sense that there could be a lot more to the answer than this, but Woodward found me too geographically illiterate to go into everything necessary to complete my understanding of this topic.

Later, when my kid’s preschool teacher made the mistake of asking what I’d been up to and I explained to her about Shem, Ham, and Japheth, she asked if Buddhist history would offer a different explanation. Of course, that’s an excellent question.

Write Paula c/o Mother Jones, 731 Market Street, Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94103. Fax her at (415) 665-6696; or send e-mail to Paula@motherjones.com

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate