Sorry, Aunt Louise

Buried in the heaping piles of economic, political, and local news a day or two ago was a gem that passed with little fanfare, but it's worth noting.

While Sue Wilson and I were doing the show the other morning, our news guy, team member Chris Keppler ran across the story about the "Storied 4 Corners" out in the American West. The place where you can stand in 4 states at the same time. Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, and Colorado. Millions of Americans have stopped there to have their pictures taken on that spot, and sent them to your Aunt Louise for generations. "Isn't that cute!" Can you hear it? Yea, me too.

But guess what, they're all shot! That's right, the people that know what they're doing this week say that you're actually only standing in 2 states. Plus, the real state line for the other two states is about 2 and half miles away. How the heck did that happen? I could understand a few feet, maybe a hundred yards or so at the outside, but over 2 miles? What is Aunt Louise going to do now? She's been showing that picture of you there for years to her friends, and recently figured out how to post it on her new Facebook account.

Please tell me for Aunt Louise's sake, the Grand Canyon is on the American side of the border. And for heavens sake reaffirm with me that on Mt. Rushmore, really is Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson.....and not George Jefferson! Because Aunt Louise has those pictures of you there posted online too. MySpace I think.

And don't even get me started on the online ridicule Aunt Louise is going to endure after her "check out my nieces and nephews pictures" "tweets" she sent out this week. They're all a sham now. Shame.

But with tongue now out of cheek, you gotta wonder how that really happened. How could some clown, or as it would appear generations of clowns get it that wrong? I had a neighbor once used to have a fit if I mowed one extra mower swipe onto his property. If he was a part of this deal, he'd be giving birth to an extremely large cow right now!

Clearly, this is not a national disaster, but you do have to wonder in this day of GPS, lasers, Google Earth, digitization, and countless other effective surveying techniques over the years how this could have been in error for 150 years. And now what state do some of these people live in?

And more importantly, what pictures will Aunt Louise have now to brag about you with? Better get to Niagara Falls quick. I'm hoping it's still on the American/Canadian border.