Twilight Zone Moments

You ever get in a situation where you're not entirely sure how to act? Let me explain...I was at an Applebee's this afternoon and the Australia/Brazil World Cup game was coming on. I had been engaged in a conversation with an extremely beautiful bartender about World Cup action. She talked about how the U.S. got robbed yesterday and so on and so forth. When the Aus/Bra game came on, she started talking to some employees who were at a different table, and I guess the question came up, "Is this Austria or Australia?" She looked at me.

I said, "It's Australia."

The extremely hot bartender says, "I thought Australia was a continent."

I said, "It's a country and a continent."

Now, here's where the "I don't know how to act" part comes in--I couldn't figure out whether there was disagreement on this or not. There seemed to be, but I couldn't hear everything people were saying. An old guy on the other side of the bar remarked sagely, "Australia is a country." I was asked something again, I don't remember what, but I reiterated, "Yes, Australia is both a country and a continent. You learn that in the 2nd grade." There was some remark by one of the guy waiters about 2nd grade, but I didn't hear his (likely sarcastic) comment.

No one really argued with me, so I don't know if they ever were satisfied with the answer. But then again, I didn't want to berate the point either. I was sitting there, drinking a Mountain Dew, wondering if I was sitting there being made fun of for my belief in such a crazy concept! And then I wanted to run home, get on Wikipedia, print out the Australia page, and run back. "See! See! Here's proof!" But I would have likely gotten the "You're a crazy bastard" look, and an, "Ooookaaaayy." And then my chances with the hot bartender would diminish!

Anyway, I can at least take solace that I'm right. Dammit.