Digging for China: A Childhood Belief Dashed by the Web

When I was but a wee geek, I was quick to believe most anything without question. I never fell for the whole Wile E. Coyote mid-air sprint or anything of the sort but, if I could make something seem feasible in my kiddie noggin, then that was enough for me.

Examples of this include the whole baby-stork delivery system, the Smurfs and digging to China.

For a brief time, I had a thing about digging holes in the lawn in search of buried treasure. Toy shovel in hand, I probably dug an average of five or six three-inch-deep holes per week. It likely frustrated the keeper of the lawn (aka Dad) to no end, but he would always laugh and ask, “You digging to China?”

He never really explained what he meant, but I didn’t need an explanation. I knew the score. I’d seen Bugs Bunny do it plenty of times. Dig deep enough, my tot-logic discerned, and you’re going to hit China (or buried treasure) sooner or later.

It’s too bad antipodr wouldn’t make the scene for another 27 years or so. Otherwise, I would’ve known that my Little Tykes shovel would only lead me to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

What is antipodr? Well, give it your address, and it will tell you what’s on the exact opposite side of the globe — where you’d end up if you had the time and resources (not to mention skin impermeable to molten rock) to dig with reckless abandon.

It may not be the most useful tool to ever hit the web, but it’s a cool way to pick up some nifty geographic trivia.